BY CONRAD HUBBARD, HEATHER GROVE AND SCOTT TAYLOR

CREDITSAuthors: Conrad Hubbard, Heather Grove, Scott TaylorAdditional Writing: Jess Heinig and Chris NasipakDevelopment: Jess HeinigEditing: John ChambersArt Direction: Aileen MilesInterior Art: Langdon Foss, Matthew Mitchell, RonSpencerCover Art: David LeriFront and Back Cover Design: Becky JollenstenLayout and Typesetting: Becky Jollensten

SPECIAL THANKSConrad "Webslave" Hubbard, who put things in order andeven got everyone chatting about it.Kraig "Tingly" Blackwelder, for sharing his journeys intoweekend retreats in exquisite detail,John "Oedipus" Chambers, for his reaction to Kraig'sjourneys.

© 2000 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisheris expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced forpersonal use only. White Wolf, Vampire the Masquerade, Vampire the Dark Ages, Vampire, Mage the Ascension, Worldof Darkness and Aberrant are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Werewolf theApocalypse, Wraith the Oblivion, Changeling the Dreaming, Hunter the Reckoning, Werewolf the Wild West, Mage theSorcerers Crusade, Wraith the Great War, Trinity, Sorcerer Revised, Kinfolk Unsung Heroes and Demon Hunter X aretrademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrightedby White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyrightconcerned.

This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fictionand intended for entertainment purposes only. Reader discretion is advised.

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PROLOGUE: Green for the Earth 4

INTRODUCTION 8

CHAPTER ONE: The Twilight World 10

CHAPTER TWO: Sorcerous Societies 20

CHAPTER THREE: Character Creation 42

CHAPTER FOUR: Paths and Rituals 58

CHAPTER FIVE: Psychic Phenomena 88

CHAPTER SIX: Storytelling 110

Cettrerrs

PRELUDEGREEN FOR THE

EARTH

Jeb Moran stared at the earth beneath hisfeet. The ground was dry and dusty; mostof the grass had already died. Jeb's skinwas dry and dusty too — he refused to usethe rose-scented moisturizer his wifeMandy bought at the grocery, so crackssplit the calluses on his fingertips open.Short, gray hair stuck to his forehead inthe heat. "So you see," he said, "if this

crop dies, we'll lose the house." His voice cracked."Mandy's relatives hate me, so we'll have no place togo." He kept his eyes on the ground.

Bruce Clark nodded, his eyes on the sky. The skywas clear and achingly blue, and the weather reportthat morning had only predicted more of the same. Hisown dark hair stuck up into the air in places where he'drun his hands through it, and rivulets of sweat beadedalong his jaw-line. He was a big man, and he moved

PRELUDE GREEN FOR THE EARTH 5

slowly, thoughtfully. He nodded. "That would be aright shame, it would," He chose his words carefully —he knew how dif f icul t it had been for Jeb to come tohim, and he didn't want to hurt the man's pride. "I'dhate to lose you as neighbors, I'm sure there'll be somerain soon."

Jeb glanced up at him sharply, "You're sure?""As sure as I can be," Bruce smiled. "Now why

don't you go home. Weather like this is nothing to berunning around in; you heard the advisory on theradio. I'll see you tomorrow,"

Jeb relaxed visibly, "I'll do that."Bruce nodded and smiled.

• • •

"But sweetheart, are you sure this is such a good idea?"Emily's brow furrowed right up the middle, pointingstraight to the part in her red hair. "Your father said thatbig things like rainstorms were only for emergencies..."

Bruce put his hands on his wife's arms and smileddown into her warm brown eyes. "I can't let Jeb down,you know that. Now please call my sister and tell herto come home for dinner tonight."

Emily pulled her flower-printed calendar and ad-dress book from the hand-carved bookcase next to thedining room table. She flipped through it u n t i l shefound the right page and picked up the phone.

Bruce kissed his wife on the forehead. "Thank you."Emily smoothed one sweaty hand against her yel-

low dress. "Well, like you said, we can't let Jeb down."She smiled.

• • *

Dinner had come to an end. Emily and Susancleared away the last of the dishes; Emily had broughtout the good blue tablecloth for the occasion, andSusan had made her famous maple-apple pie. Everyonewas stuffed and happy.

Emily shooed Anne, her 12-year-old daughter,into the kitchen, "Take care of dishes; we need tohandle the crops."

"Can't I help? I'm old enough now. I've been doingmy studies." Anne put her hands on her jeans-clad hips.

"Don't argue with me." Emily glared at Anne, andAnne turned to the kitchen with a roll of her eyes.

Bruce watched her go and shrugged. "We shouldini t iate her soon. She is old enough."

"Oh, don't you let her hear you, or she won't giveup nearly so easily next time," Emily teased him.

• • •

By the light of a flashlight, Bruce took a sturdyhunting knife from the trunk and a grass-green beeswaxcandle. He stuffed the knife under his arm, while hepulled out a cheap plastic lighter and lit the wick. "Green

for the earth," he whispered as he put the lighter in hispocket and turned off the flashlight. Susan had taken outanother knife, and both of the women lit their candles,whispering the same benediction.

Bruce held his candle high, as he drew a circle aroundthem in the dirt with his knife — he tried to telax andhold his concentration as he felt the hot wax drip onto hisfingers. He put the candle down on a rock near the centerof the circle and lifted an old, leather-bound book fromthe trunk. He read rough, guttural words from its pages —no one knew what the words meant, but they'd beentaught to pronounce the syllables long ago. Not knowingwhat he said only heightened the sense that somethingspecial was about to happen. He felt the quickening of hisheartbeat, at once familiar and exciting. He passed thebook to Emily, and each family member in turn read fromits pages.

Emily put her candle on the ground and stepped tothe center of the circle. She closed her eyes andreached out with her hands and her mind. She felt aspark as her awareness touched the sky, and she gaspedfor breath. "As our fathers and mothers before us havealways done, we call to the earth and beg a reply. Bringrain for the crops, or we shall die." In the distance, afaint peal of thunder sounded,

Susan looked up into the night sky at the sound ofthunder and shuddered — she'd done things like thisfor years, but it never failed to br ing a flush to hercheeks. She brought her attention back to the circleand took her place in the center. "In return, we give ofourselves. We nourish the earth, so that it mightnourish us in return," She ran her knife along theinside of her left arm and stiffened at the pain. Herbreath hissed as she squeezed her arm so the bloodwould drip onto the dirt and the yellowed grass. An-other peal of thunder sounded, a l i t t l e closer this time.A cool breeze cut through the heat.

Bruce closed the book and put it back in the trunk.The knives joined it, and the extinguished candles.The flashlight shone out over the field once again.Emily laughed as she shut her eyes and turned her faceup to the breeze. She could already feel the moisture init, the promise of rain.

"It feels incredible," she said."The magic or the coming rain?" her husband

asked with a smile as he wrapped his arms around herfrom behind. They heard Susan gather up the lastcontents of the t runk and carry it back toward thetarmhouse.

"Both." She pressed her hands into his and stoodfor a long time, unt i l a drop of rain fell onto her face,landing in the corner of her closed eye,

She shivered.Nothing had ever felt so perfect in the entire world.

6 SORCERER

Prelude: GREEN FoR THE EARTH 7

Welcome to the newly revised edition of Sor-cerer, the book of Numina for Mage: TheAscension. While Mage deals with those phe-nomenal humans who've Awakened to the powerto change reality, Sorcerer details those whohave discovered a more limited path to power.Still, they're nothing to sneeze at — a sorcerer,though perhaps not as flexible, is just as much adweller in the occult world as any mage.

A sorcerer leads a sort of half-Awakened life, right on thecusp of the magical world but without the breadth and flexibilityof a full Awakened mage. Grasping at the mythic threads heldin legend and history, some resurrect ancient magics from ageslong ago. Others push themselves to extraordinary understand-ing of science or spirituality and develop the capacity to exceednormal people in phenomenal ways. One can hardly callsorcerers "limited" — they have for more wisdom, and far moreconcomitant peril, than most mundane humans. While Awak-ened mages are the trailblazers who forge new ways, the sorcerersare those humans who dare to walk those paths opened by theAwakened instead of complacently waiting for the world tocome to them.

Herein, you'll find newly updated rules for sorcerers,their Paths, their societies and practices, plus a complete setof psychic Numina, new guidelines for storytelling andcharacter creation rules for the numinous mortals of Mage.So, without further ado...

Chapter One: The Twilight World introduces theworld from the point of view of a sorcerer.

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies looks into the manygroups of sorcerers, how they operate, who they recruit andwhat they believe. Here you'll also discover the role ofsorcerers in the various Traditions and Conventions.

Chapter Three: Character Creation examines thecreation rules for numinous mortals, including their specialMerits, Abilities and powers.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals covers all manner ofmagical abilities that sorcerets practice, from alchemy totechno-sorcery.

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena unearths the strangemental powers possessed by a blessed (or cursed?) few.

Chapter Six: Storytelling advises on how to includesorcerers in games, how to integrate sorcery with the Worldof Darkness and ways to make sure that sorcerers don't takesecond seat to more flexible mages.

Introduction 9

I know what my sisters do not know. I have seenwhat my brothers have not seen. And I can nevertell them, for it would break our circle. All I cando is protect them from what they do not know.

- Caroline Goldberg, Newburg NightCabal, at age 26

Who Are We?My name is Caroline, and I have lived for more than 70 years; I spent the

last 30 of those chronicling the details of cabals from Maine to Zimbabweand Cambodia to Alaska. In those years, I have seen things that do not exist,and I have done things that cannot be done. Yet, I am nothing compared tothe monsters that walk in the shadows. I am a "just," like normal humans are"just" — at least, to those others. Among my own people, I am respected formy knowledge and wisdom, looked up to for the powers I have gained. Some wouldsay that I have achieved my hopes and dreams — far more so, at least, thanmost people ever have the chance to.

We sorcerers are the in-betweens — we walk the twilight world. We arehuman, entirely mortal. Ho spirits ride our backs. We have a pulse and warmblood. And yet we can do things no human should do. We are a contradiction

CHAPTER ONE: THE TWILIGHT WORLD 11

of terms, and that makes us outsiders to everyone. Those who know of us fearus, respect us, worship us — or think we're kind of pathetic. We are religiousleaders, professors, businessmen, farmers and housewives, and we are pawns,fodder for other people's wars and sometime-companions to those othercreatures. Perhaps you can see now why we set such stock in secrecy.

What is it like to be one of us? It's heartbreaking. Every child dreams ofmagic. Everyone wishes they had powers beyond the norm. Who hasn't daydreamedof calling forth fire, summoning a spirit or changing their shape? Who hasn'tlonged for the things our parents told us weren't true? Who hasn't wished, justfor a moment, for even the dark things to be real — just so long as it meantthat magic was real, too? To be a sorcerer is to know these things, to understandthem, to feel the rush of them in your belly — to gasp at the thrill along yourspine when you create that first spark, when you summon that first breeze tocaress your palm. We fight hard for every understanding we reach, and this onlymakes the knowledge that much more exciting when we uncover it.

Few mention this to their students along with the more traditional warnings,but sorcery is addictive. Once you see someone do something that cannot be done— once you taste real magic — you can never go back. This addiction bites bothways, of course. It gives us the enthusiasm and motivation we need for theendless studying and practice, the incredible effort of will that is sorcery.let, it also leads some of us to make bargains with devils, demons and farstranger things in the rush to learn more.

For those very few of us who have seen the other things that walk the earth,it bites even deeper. Imagine if you will that you've just gotten your firstcar, after working for years to pay for it. You're incredibly excited that youcan drive now, you can go wherever you want. You're free. Then you discoverone day that there are people out there who can fly. Suddenly your car doesn'tlook so amazing any more. It's slow and clunky. But you will never be able tofly — it's impossible for you. And you can never return to your innocent state,to your enthusiasm and your freedom. You are forever defined by the boundariesof your now much-smaller car.

I suppose I am a little bitter. Pay me no mind, please.I think the ritual of sorcery attracts as many people as the power. People

have an instinctive love of ritual — it makes us belong. I believe this is thesecret behind the great power religion has over the masses. Even some mentalillnesses breed ritual — the motions an obsessive-compulsive performs make herfeel better; she becomes stressed if she is prevented from performing them.Whispered prayer calms us. Prescribed motion settles us. Ritual focuses ourwill, helps us to control our bodies and centers our minds. Many meditationsinvolve breathing exercises or precise bodily motion (such as tai chi, whichto some people is a meditation-in-motion) — another type of ritual. Those peoplewho lead us in ritual, such as priests, hold great sway over our emotional andspiritual lives. People give money and time to churches in return for thecomfort of ritual. They turn to religion — to ritual — whenever they are mostin need, when they have lost loved ones, jobs and homes.

I took an evening psychology class some few years ago, and the lecturer said,"neurosis is a private religion; religion is a public neurosis." Sorcery isboth our religion and our neurosis. It is our comfort and our obsession, oursolace and psychosis. It may help us to put our lives back together after sometragedy, or it may send us over the edge. It gives us something to belong toand believe in and sets us forever apart from our fellow man. It is the between-place, the sharp divide, the fine line and the twilight path. We stand betweenthe mortals and the terror that hunts the night, and we may give aid in theform of potions, devices, voodoo and spells, or we may apprentice ourselves

12 SORCERER

to those same terrors in the hopes of gaining greater power. We may not beat the top of the food chain, but we do matter. Don't ever let bitter oldpeople like me convince you otherwise.

CompanionsWhat most people call a cabal, I call a church, but I'll stick to the usual

terminology so as to avoid confusing you. As I said, I see no real differencebetween ritual and religion, so my ritual is my religion. Those who try toconvince themselves that their cabal does not matter to them or that theircabal is only a collection of colleagues are lying to themselves. You cannotput such an emotional stake into your work and claim that those you work withmean nothing to you — and you cannot perform magic without emotion. Therecomes a point when the work and those performing it become one and the same,when the magic and the man become inseparable. That is the act of will.

Cabals soothe and welcome. They give us a place to be who we are. Theyhelp us to reach our full potential. Or they can pressure us into doing thingswe aren't ready for, keep all of their secrets from us and lead us along thedarkest of roads with bright promises and lies. I've known cabals that makedemons look slack, they're so adept at sucking people down the wrong path.Cabals can be about the search for knowledge, companionship, simplepracticality, religious zealotry or several things at once.

Never make the mistake of believing that cabals are simple social clubs.Your cabal is your responsibility. You have responsibilities to your cabal— these differ from cabal to cabal — and you have responsibilities withrespect to your cabal. This includes the need to take note if your cabalappears to be headed down the wrong path and to either help to turn them backif possible or turn them over to someone better able to handle the situationif you cannot. Worst case, if there is no one better able to handle thesituation — and there rarely is — it' s your responsibility to run away. You'rejust as guilty if you stand by and watch atrocities being committed as ifyou'd committed them yourself.

Membership in a cabal may come with resources and responsibilities. Itoften comes with a cause, as well. If you're lucky, you may be filled withthe rightness of your cause, uplifted and inspired. If you aren't lucky,you'll find yourself wondering what your cabal is really up to and why theyseem to be hiding things from you. You may be pulled into a search forforbidden knowledge, an exploration of self-discovery — anything fromdeviltry to divinity and everything in-between. Cabals are essential — it salmost impossible to learn what you really need to know without one. Butcabals are also dangerous. They concentrate all the human frailties of theirmembers in one direction — sorcery.

I'll give you a few examples of cabals I've seen and heard about; I suspectit will be far more effective than any pontificating I could do.

A group of students at the college I went to sat around doing drugs andhaving visions. They seemed pretty harmless. I wasn't into the drug thing,and at the time, I didn't even realize they were anything other than lazystudents — it wasn't until later that I could look back and recognize thesigns. They sucked people in, though, and those people lost months and yearsto the drugs and visions. Some of them went crazy from what they saw and endedup on psych wards. One killed himself; I still don't know why he did it. Othersjust lost time that they could have spent learning other magics. I don't wantyou to think that they were bad — some of them went on to do great things,and one or two developed true power in those smoky rooms. They just weren'tfor me.

CHAPTER ONE: THE TWILIGHT WORLD 13

It does go to show you that you haveto be careful about the cabal you join.Don't assume that anyone who doessorcery is capable of teaching youwonderful things. I could tell you totreat it like going to college, tointerview and look around, take toursand stay overnight. But that wouldn't behelpful. Maybe in an ideal world thiswould be possible, but it isn't as thoughthere's a list of cabals somewhere withnames and contact numbers and lists oftheir likes, dislikes and bad habits.(This one's a party cabal; that one's forserious scholars; etc.) Just be carefulis all.

I once met a member of a cabal thatoperated much like a writer's group. Theygot together once or twice a week andpresented their latest magical work toeach other — the results of their studies,their newest accomplishments, their theo-ries and moments of enlightenment. Theypointed out the flaws in each other's workand helped each other to figure out how tomake things better. Other than that, theystayed out of each other's lives, apartfrom the occasional dinner together. Theyconvinced themselves that they didn'tmatter all that much to each other; it wasjust an issue of practicality. Eventu-ally, one of them slaughtered half of thegroup before he could be stopped — thedanger of telling powerful people to notcare about each other.

My own cabal was a tight-knit group.We bought a house in the suburbs, becausethat way we could get lots of space fornot too much money. We spent the rest ofour pooled money on books and ritualmaterials and on the special renovationswe wanted. We performed rituals in themorning to greet the day, rituals beforemeals and rituals for every sort ofspecial occasion. We studied when weweren't working, and we spent ourevenings in quiet contemplation, instudy or in the practice of our art. Youhaven't seen anything until you've seenan entire floor of a house with theinterior walls knocked out, huge windowsreflecting the light of 100 blue candles,arcane symbols painted on every wall and

SORCERER14

floor — some even on the ceiling. And who could forget the figures draped inwhite robes, chanting in every language from Latin to Egyptian. We did thison the fourth floor, and enough trees grew outside that we felt no need to coverthe windows while we worked. This eventually proved to be our undoing, but thatis another story. If there is anything you can learn from my cabal, it is tokeep a cool head. Don't get too cocky, and stay in touch with the real world.No matter how well intentioned your cabal, it's dangerous to lose touch withlife.

I knew a band that acted as a cabal; some of their stage shows were intricaterituals. Don't laugh. Words carefully scripted, every note accounted for, andthey knew exactly where on the stage they'd move at every turn. It was beautifulto watch them. I also knew a traveling theater group that worked sorcery, butthey didn't work it into their performances — they tried to keep the two partsof their lives as separate as possible.

And then there was the earth cult one of my cabal-mates almost joined. Itwas one of those earth-mother Gaia-worship sorts of groups. Lots of crystalsand litanies about the moon, that kind of thing. They were so sweet; I'd almostexpect them to hold bake sales. But once a month, when that precious moon oftheirs grew dark, so did they. Rumor has it they sacrificed babies on thosenights, but I expect that's hyperbole — it must have been animals, or someonewould have noticed all those children disappearing. Anyway, those sweet girlswent out into the woods, painted themselves up with blood and called down darkmagics upon everyone who'd ever wronged them. You really didn't want to geton their bad side. The plumber who hit on one of them never walked again afterthe next new moon. Maybe you can say they didn't hurt anyone who didn't hurtthem first, but if you ask me, they went more than a little overboard.

It's easy to go overboard, though, when you get caught up in magic. You think,I can make charms and call down hellfire upon my enemies heads, so it's okayfor me to do it, right? I mean, what's the point of having these abilities ifI don't use them? And when you're hurt because someone betrayed you or angryat the trick someone pulled on you, it's hard to remember that they're justmortal — they don't have the resources we have and have no protections againstour magics. I think the difference between a "good" and a "bad" cabal is theability of the cabal to gently restrain its members' darker impulses. A goodcabal will find a way to repress or channel those impulses to another end, ratherthan allow them to run rampant. Don't be fooled, however; very few cabals everfigure out how to do it successfully. Eventually, someone always snaps.

The Difficult RoadThere are those for whom magic comes naturally, instinctively, intuitively.

Oh yes, they have to work for it, but not like we do. They have spirits to guidethem and push them in the right direction. And where one of us might createa ritual through years of study, a few can weave with a simple word or gesture;they have the knowing of magic, they can bend it as they will without followingall of its rules. Where we must study for years and years to be able to seeinto the spirit world, some of their basest beginners can do the same. Theystudy for decades in order to become powerful beyond your wildest dreams; westudy for decades to be able to heal someone's wounds without too much trouble.We both do magic. A few of these think that they have some special gift or talentthat sets them apart. Perhaps they do; I have my sorcery and if, perhaps, Iam limited by the rules and rituals I know, so too, do I not suffer the mistakesand backfires of someone who tries to tamper wantonly with such potent forces.

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that your magic is inferior. We'resorcerers, and that's honorable. So we may not have some spirit or inspirationgiving us a leg up and shortcut into the theory of magic. It means we also don't

CHAPTER ONE: THE TWILIGHT WORLD 15

have some spirit telling us what to do. I hear that, for some shamans, theirspirits hold their magical ability hostage until they learn to jump throughthe right hoops. And if you don't do it the way the spirit wants, well, youdon't get that little bit of enlightenment you were searching for, too bad foryou. You just have to start all over again until you get it right. If you askme, that's too high a price to pay for any power. Might as well sell your soulto the Devil at that rate; at least you get to choose that - I understand thatmany don't choose their muses; just as they have inspiration, so too, are theydriven, and it can drive you to madness or death. I hear some of these chaoticspirits are pretty nasty too, with their own agendas and goals. Why leaveyourself at the mercy of something you didn't even get the option of choosing,when you can learn magic on your own instead? So our magic will never be aspowerful or as versatile as some of those who just have the gift." So what?At least it's ours.

Our magic almost never "just comes to us." Some sorcerers have a greaterintuition than others regarding their Path, it's true. Others have "psychic"abilities that are more inherent than learned. But by and large, we're on ourown. We must find a mentor, a teacher or a library to get anywhere, if not allthree. Rituals don't just pop up out of the earth, after all. We must researchand develop them, painstakingly, over time. We dig up what others before ushave done and recreate what was lost. But at least once we're done we know that,time after time, unless we screw something up, we can repeat the same ritualover and over and reliably get the same result. I can paint the same symbols,speak the same syllables, make the same motions and have the same spirit appearin my attic. There's a lot to be said for this sort of dependability.

Also, while our magic may go wrong — say, if we break the circle we stand inor pronounce a syllable incorrectly — it doesn't mess with us the way it does tothose who try to bend its rules. Those who try to force their will over the properrituals are subject to the vicissitudes of the world in a way that a careful magiciannever is. Bad things may happen if we screw up, but at least we aren't as likelyto take a building of innocent bystanders with us when we go.

Secrecy is of paramount importance to us. Without it, our lives becomeincredibly difficult, normal mortals will fear or revile us. Some will worshipus —and this can be even worse than their fear. Other magicians and the othercreatures you know nothing about will look down on us, use us to fight theirbattles or kill us when we become an annoyance to them. Some lead us along withpromises, claiming that they can teach us what they know — do not believe them.What they are we either cannot or must not become. The only ones who are capableof conferring their ability upon us are the very worst of all.

Far too many of our kind have died in the service of other creatures' battles.Do not allow them to recognize and categorize you, or you, too, will likelyend your life on someone else's battlefield. It isn't worth it, no matter howsexy you think the vampire is, no matter how beautiful or powerful the ghost.The monsters out there can eat you for breakfast — don't forget it. Our weaponsare secrecy and subtlety. We can hold our own but only if we're careful.

At this rate, though, you're going to think the sorcerer's life isn't worthit. Emphatically, it is. When you get something right, you know you did ityourself, with perseverance and hard work — it wasn't some damn spirit doingit for you. You answer to yourself and your cabal, not some overarchingTradition or Convention (although some of our people have been known towillingly help those magicians and their enemies — I'll never understand why).You don't follow the dictates of some spirit, and you aren't required to throwyour life away in some ancient and misunderstood war. In short, you are free.You may think your magic limiting, the rules stifling and the price high, but

16 SORCERER

you have a talent that obeys your commands and brings you knowledge andconfidence, and you owe it only to yourself, not to some demon or curse orspirit. We are our own masters, We rule our magic and ourselves. What we do,

do by our own choice. That is something we have gained by being human, andit is something we should hold onto for dear life. It is far more preciousthan any power on earth.

the Why of What We BoWhy do people become sorcerers? You might as well ask why people become

police officers or professors or parents. They do it because they want to.They do it because it fascinates them. They do it because they think they cando some good. Or they do it because they feel they have no choice. Everyonedoes it for his own reason. In my 30 years of traveling and studying variouscabals (and even a few solitary sorcerers), I've heard almost as many reasons-or the study of sorcery as I have met sorcerers.

Some people do it to protect themselves against the evil things that waitthe earth. When you're mortal, it's easy to feel powerless against themonsters; anything that gives you a leg up is desirable. Some do it to protectthemselves against mundane enemies —wouldn't you like to be able to get thepolice off of your back if you're wanted in five states? Protection is a heavypart of sorcery, look in any paperback on magical herbalism and you'll findthat roughly SO percent of the herbs out there can be used for protectionagainst evil spirits." (The other 20 percent are for fertility. Some of the80 percent are for fertility and driving away evil spirits) Evil spirits, ofcourse, can be interpreted to mean almost anything. For example, garlic wasnever a specific ward against vampires — it was, like every other herb, a wardagainst evil spirits. Vampires just fell into that category along witheverything else out there. Bad luck was an evil spirit, and the hatred of yourenemies took the form of evil spirits. So protection, as a blanket desire,holds a powerful place in the annals of sorcery, and many of our rituals canbe either directly or indirectly used in the attempt to protect ourselves fromthe dangers we encounter.

Others become sorcerers in order to protect the people around them. Thealtruistic use their skills in order to keep others alive, protect people fromknowledge of the supernatural and undo the harm that befalls those around them(physical and emotional, natural and supernatural). I've known doctors inhospitals who practiced sorcery on their patients. I've heard of detectiveswho used sorcery to help them track down criminals. Not all sorcerers are gray-bearded old men in ivory academic towers, studying dusty old books.

Many variations upon the traditional theme of revenge exist. What betterway to strike back against your tormentors or those who killed someone closeto you than to learn the ways of sorcery? It is traditionally the tool of shewho has no other way to strike back against those who have harmed her, shewho has no other recourse — she who could not find redress within the standardmeans provided by society. This is perhaps why so many who were "outsiders"in their youth find their way to sorcery — they had no other way to repay thosethey hated. They had no other means to feel powerful.

This brings us to the next reason — to feel powerful. So many of us feelas^though we re at the bottom of one food chain or another. No matter whatwe're at the top of, there's always someone else looking hungrily down at us.Sorcery can make you feel a little more in control, although there is alwaysa debate as to whether or not this feeling is illusory. It can make you feelworthwhile and special. Some say this is not a good reason to learn sorcery.But who can say that this reason is not at the heart of most of the others?You may claim that you learned sorcery in order to protect other people, but

CHAPTER ONE: THE TWILIGHT WORLD 17

you obviously felt that you were not powerful enough to do it on your own, didn'tyou? So isn't power once again at the heart of the matter?

Some learn sorcery simply as a means to an end, a way to accomplish somespecific task. It rarely stops there, of course. As I said earlier, sorceryis addictive; it's a shiny thing that's hard to put down once you've pickedit up. Very few of these people learn only as much as they need to know andno more. Most continue their studies long after their goal has been achieved.Some lose sight of their goal in the pursuit of their studies.

Simple curiosity may be the reason behind one's forays into sorcery. Youread about a spell, and out of curiosity, you try it. Maybe it works, maybeit doesn't, but now you want to know about other spells. Is this stuff real?Is it not? So many people get hooked just trying to find out if this kind ofthing can really work. I would include in this group those people who delveinto sorcery in order to feel what I call "the touch of magic." These are thepeople who would do anything to get that thrill along their spine that workingmagic gives them. These are also the people most likely to perform sex magic,but I digress.

Family tradition is a powerful reason. Some sorcerous orders require bloodrelationship as a precursor to initiation (although some will allow those whomarry into the family to join, under certain circumstances). I met a man oncewho had been trained in the ways of his cabal since he was five years old. Ritualswere weekend family outings with picnics and barbecue. I'll never understandit — it seems to lack the sense of mystery and wonder that to me characteriseso much of sorcery — but I guess it works for them.

Mental illness is another reason that someone might choose to pursue thesorcerous arts. Some would hate me for saying this, would say that I'mperpetuating a bad stereotype. But it's true. Sometimes people try to muck withthe stuff of the universe because they're messed up in the head. Maybe theythink they're gods, or maybe they want a way to hurt lots of people. Maybe theirillness makes them think they're capable of sorcery, and somehow, it reallyworks. Not all mentally ill sorcerers are bad people — mania is a populardisorder to find among sorcerers, perhaps because one of the symptoms of maniais "religious feelings" — which brings us back to "the touch of magic." Whocan say you'd know the difference between the two? But some of those who findtheir way into sorcery through mental illness are dangerous people indeed,luckily, they're also the ones who are most likely to get fried when they decidethey're capable of calling on massively dangerous spirits and demons.

One reason for becoming a sorcerer that may surprise you is peer pressure.When the rest of your family does it, every one of( your five brothers wentthrough initiation when they reached puberty, and it's expected of you, it canbe hard to say no. The same is true when your friends try to push you into it.Too many people embarked upon the road of sorcery not because they want to,but because someone dragged them into it.

How We Became What We AreMuch of the how is wrapped up in the why. The family initiates those people

who join family cabals. If your friends push you into sorcery, then they reusually the ones handing out books, telling you to sacrifice small animals andcobbling together some trumped-up "initiation rite" they found in a fantasynovel. If simple curiosity drew you into sorcery then you probably learned yourfirst stumbling spells from books at the library, or a Hew Age bookstore.Intense personal study and meditation have a long and venerable tradition;don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

18 SORCERER

Maybe you found some weird site on the World Wide Web that had spells onit. Don't look so surprised — I may be old, but I'm up with the times. Someof these sites are legitimate, put up by people who believe that all peoplehave the right to protect themselves against the bad things out there. Othersare attempts to recruit people — they'll put up spells that are wrong, thatshouldn't do anything and see who comes back with, "well, the spell you putup didn't work, but then I thought, what if I did this? And it worked." Somepeople have an intuition about spells and rituals, and those are valuablerecruits. You must beware, however; some web sites are traps. There are groupsout there that don't like it when people mess with reality, and they 11 doanything they can to root us out and stomp on us.

Some people, as I said, hare an intuitive sense for sorcery. They might startout with things they find in the bookstore and alter them to suit their owntastes. Or they might make up their own material. Most people really do needsome teacher — whether it's a person or a book — but these few can get by ontheir own. They might never learn the really powerful things, and they rarelyget far with spirit magic (which often requires that you know which spirityou're calling on), but they hold their own.

A mentor is the best way to learn sorcery but, of course, leaves you opento the perils of finding the wrong mentor. Some cabals and individual sorcerersfollow potential recruits for weeks, even years, before deciding to invite themin. Others simply provide the opportunity to the potential recruit and declarethat recruit ready to join when he figures things out for himself. Some peoplefind cabals and invite themselves in — this is a dangerous game, though, becausenot all sorcerers are nice people; some would rather kill you than invite youto share their fire. Some cabals put their recruits through tests — some ofthese are ritualistic, but others may be quite deadly.

Ultimately, there are as many ways to do sorcery, as many ways to learn it,as many ways to get involved with it, as there are cabals. And there are a lotof cabals out there. Oh, they're not on every street corner — not even in everymajor city. There are whole states without any sorcerous communities. But ifyou travel the world as I have, you'll eventually find quite a few sorcerersout there. Be careful — most of them are not your friends. Until you are asold and as learned as I am, I would not recommend doing what I have done. Ihave escaped from privacy-minded cabals by the skin of my teeth, and I've takenmy share of wounds. Hopefully, my research will mean that you may stay safeat home.

CHAPTER ONE: THE TWILIGHT WORLD 19

Chapter Two:SorcerousSocieties

They can because they think they can.

— Virgil

The Forms of MagicFor the last time, I get so sick and tired of

hearing about "hedge magic." Hearing thatparticularly stupid phrase just makes me thinkof enchantments for clipping large ornamen-tal shrubbery. Magic is magic.

If it will help you to understand better,think of the universe as an old dog. You try to

teach it new tricks, and so, it tries to bite you now and then.I am trying to get it to do tricks it already knows, which maytake longer sometimes, but at least the old girl seems happyto roll over, fetch or play dead without ripping my arm off.Think 1 am limiting myself? Well, this universe of ours is anawfully old dog, and she's got a list of tricks we may neverexhaust.

— Hurai the Acolyte

CHAPTER TWO: SORCEROUS SOCIETIES 21

Linear MagicStudies of the Nature of Linear Magic in Effort to Further Expand Universal

Understanding of the Word-Excerpts from the lectures of Hurai, Practicus of House Bonisagus

Greetings, fellow Hermetics. I hope that you will forgive me if I do notsufficiently explain myself, but I have been given the difficult task ofexplaining the underpinnings that static magics from traditions as diverse asshamanism, Hermeticism and Kabbalah share. I am sure that many of the termsthat I have chosen to use would confuse, surprise or perhaps even anger thoseof whom I speak. It is nonetheless true that every theory of magic includesrecognizable elements that we can easily categorize for simple explanation.I am not purporting that the study of magic by any tradition is a simple matter,only that it is more useful to establish some terminology with which to referto commonly shared concepts.

I suppose we should start with the exception to which I am certain many ofyou will take to my terming what has traditionally been called static magicas linear. In truth, what we commonly refer to as static magic still containelements of change and would thus be considered a dynamic force. What separatesmy manipulation of reality from that of more dynamic practitioners, knownamongst many of the Order as True Mages, is the following of established paths.These paths may seem winding and lost to the uninitiated but grow clear cutto those who have spent long years studying the ways of magic. By followinga set method of enunciating certain words of Enochian while exercising the Willin a precise faction, I can cause Creo Ignem, the creation of fire, like thus.Through rigid practice of meditation, certain monks have been shown to havethe ability to induce ecstatic visions.

I am quite aware that some of you here can do these things and more. Butmy point is this. I can create this flame in precisely the same fashion everysingle time via the same action. To make fire from nothing, from the mindsetof myself and others who practice so-called linear sorts of magic, is a stepby step process. First, I learned to make a spark, then a candle and, eventually,under the right circumstances, a bonfire. The move from spark to bonfire hasbeen a linear progression using the same principles and elements with greaterand greater refinement and application of Will. When Lucian Dark described hisrealization of the mastery of the element of fire to me, it became clear thathe had realized some sort of commonality of forces in the Word that grantedhim control of all kinetic energies under one set of principles. I can assureyou that this is not the case in my own studies, I am still struggling withthe spells to gently nudge the smallest rock practically, yet can easilyincinerate that table in front of you.

Thus, I propose that the art of static or "hedge" magic be termed "linearmagic." Magic generally called dynamic or "Awakened" displays categoricalcontrol that suggests the designation of "affinitive magic." Variousmagnitudes of use of the same effect shall be termed Degrees. The study of how

22 SORCERER

to enact a single effect to greater and greater degree most easily lendsitself to being called a Path. I hope it will not be taken as hubris tofurther point out that all magic, whether affinitive or linear, followsprinciples of dynamism, stasis or entropy. This is why I recommend adifferent label with which to discuss the differences between the two formsof magic.

A practitioner of affinitive magic, for example our esteemed colleagueLucian, manipulates reality with a model that declares that all energiesare similar and thus can be manipulated the same way. The limitation appearsto be that, in order to learn to affect all energies once one decides thatthey are the same, one must expand a much larger model to a higher Degree.A linear practitioner, by way of contrast, uses a very tightly defined modelof one aspect of reality at a time, say fire for example. Advancing the Paththat composes this much smaller model is a significantly easier task thanadvancing through the more comprehensive affinitive degrees. In a sense,it requires that one step back again and again to the beginning of a newPath every time one wishes to pursue a new linear magical effect. I findthat I must begin at the tiniest Degree with virtually no benefit gainedfrom knowledge of Paths that have been followed to their current conclusion.

One of the greatest contributions of our Order to the Council ofTraditions was the theory that unified magical concepts into Spheres ofinfluence. In order to prevent confusion between the Spheres of affinitivemagical thought and the spheres of influence which are used almostprecisely the same by linear magic, I propose a return to the classicalterm Elements. Modern magical theories have grown far beyond those of theMythic Age, and magical Elements are commonly accepted amongst thetraditions to include nine Arts. Herein, I shall refer to them in theirLatin names: Ars Animae (Life), Ars Conjunctionis (Correspondence), ArsEssentiae (Forces), Ars Fati (Entropy), Ars Manium (Spirit), Ars Materiae(Matter), Ars Mentis (Mind), Ars Temporis (Time) and Ars Vis (Prime). Inthe affinitive school of magical study, these nine Ars (Arts) are treatedas complete models of practice; learning a Degree of Ars Animae is verytrying but gifts one with an incredible range of magic tied into one theory.Linear magic recognized the usefulness of the Elements, but breaks themfurther down into actual applications.

An Element is directed in use towards a Principle, of dynamism, stasisor entropy. An effect derived from Ars Animae utilizing the principle ofstasis might be to heal the human body* The linear practitioner literallylearns how to use this combination of Principle and Element in one specificway. At first, a shaman may learn to apply certain herbal remedies to healthe mildly sick. Over time, she may learn to regenerate the limbs of anamputee. This expanding ability to perform greater Degrees of the samerefined magical power is the Path of the linear mage. Each magical Pathis an effect of various Degrees of magnitude that falls into one of the-nine Elements of magical manipulation and under one of the three Principlesof metaphysics. What this allows us to do is to create a model of 27 typesof Paths. Regardless of the source of the linear mage's power, every Pathof sorcery can be classified thus. My creation of fire, for example, isArs Essentiae Dynamism.

CHAPTER TWO: SORCEROUS SOCIETIES 23

Metaphysical SocietiesMagical study by the sorcerer of the World ofDarkness is a path worn deep by the travails ofgenerations of past students and masters. Formost of us, the steady progress offered bysystems that teach, "Do this, and this shallhappen," is far easier to understand than thebroad strokes of affinitive magic and its almostrevelatory methods of learning. The linearpath offers the ideal of hard work achieving

great results. One of the most important facets of linearmagic is that it is more readily able to be taught. Affinitivemagic, such as that practiced by "Awakened" mages, seemsto require a mindset that can be helped by teaching but mustinitiate itself through some sort of internal breakthrough.Linear magic, in contrast, demands tremendous degrees ofpractice and education in its ways, with personal leapsconsisting mostly of finally realizing what some lesson means.Indeed, many linear practitioners seem to have a miniatureepiphany, similar to an Awakening but less profound, whentheit understanding of mysticism crystallizes into a practicalform. However, they lack the wild flamboyance of theshatteringly Awakened — they learn through heritage, notthrough dynamism.

This principal difference creates a cultural communitythat is stronger than most affinitive ptactitioners' links. Theimportance of mentors within linear magic societies is muchgreater. The relationships between students and masters arestronger. One of the results of this closeness has been lowervisibility of sorcerers within mage society; the actions of agroup are quickly credited to the entire Tradition, whereasthe actions of one powerful independent mage gain herpersonal fame within magical society. When a mage looksaround her at who is best at what, it is so easy to fall into thehubris of assuming that those who are well known are themost potent. In reality, the groups of sotcerers who growtogether through extended mentor and student lines formtight factions that should not be ignored.

When a student early in her path finds a mentor whosatisfies her dreams of discovering how to perform miracu-lous feats, a bond forms that can never truly be broken.Think back to the first schoolteacher that ever taught yousomething you found amazing at the time. Now imagine if

24 SORCERER

they had instead taught you to fly, turn lead into gold orempathetically read emotions. It can be difficult not toaccept the political and social ideas of the teacher, as well ashis metaphysical education. Some teachers even take ad-vantage of this bond to manipulate their followers intoacting to further their mentors' own interests. Othet times,students simply find their masters have so much to teach thatthey never leave. With so many enemies, ranging frombloodsucking vampires to tyrannical Technocrats to ragingwerewolves, many simply band together for survival.

On the mentor's side, there is much he gains fromcontinuing to help his students. Though many would notadmit it, it is a simple fact that often students show aptitudesfor Paths that even masters find difficult. A student may helpeven an aged professor finally understand through somefresh viewpoint or may simply be able to perform whateveruses for the Path the mentor might have in his stead. Asnoted above, some teachers are willing to exploit theirposition in order to further their own agendas. This may beas benevolent as convincing one'sstudents todo healingandcharity work or as dangerous as inciting murderous hatred forhis enemies. Prestige can also be gained by mentoring aparticularly successful student, raising a master's position inthe eyes of his peers.

Generations of students learning at the feet of thosewho have already mastered the secret arts inspires tight,loyal groups of fellow practitioners. There are always thosewho don't fit in though. A young student might realize thathe has taken up a Path that is not to his true taste and, thus,start again elsewhere. He might be subjected to a cruelmaster's games and seek safety in escape from the society.Depending on the nature of the sorcerous society, it may seekto silence him or simply let him go about his way. Evenmasters may find reasons to leave their groups. A talentedbiogeneticist may find her work claimed by a ruthless rivaland decide that she is tired of being used. Perhaps she startsher own lab and takes on her own students. She might justretire to private practice. A psychic master might be expelledby his order for abuse of power, instigating a psychic war ashe and his students seek revenge upon the rest of the order.Splinter groups and loner sorcerers add a great sense ofuncertainty and spice to the Tapestry of reality.

Awakened or Not, It's Still MagicThough the preceding essay clearly shows a delinea-

tion between Awakened and non-Awakened magic,(patters aren't necessarily so simple in the World ofDarkness. The opinions of one Hermetic scholar, even if(Key happen to fit the model of the "game rules," do notComprise the entirety of Hermetic thought on the subject,Indeed, many mages would argue that the distinctions are

unnecessary. Why bother labeling some of the lessgifted, less creative magicians as "inferior" or "linear"magicians? They still do magic. Trying to create divi-sions is a waste of time — magicians have better thingsto do. The typical mage or sorcerer neither knows norcates about the real boundaries between Awakened andnon-Awakened magic.

Great and SmallThe societies that form when practitioners of the meta-

physical gather are generally small, for a number of obviousreasons. First of all, only a small portion of humanity as awhole has the patience or desire to learn how to trulymanipulate the world around them. Most of us have alreadybeen convinced that our environment rules us, rather thanthe reverse. Large organizations require strong public sup-port, which is also lacking for the sorcerer. Many sorcerousgroups are subsets of an even larger organization. This is thecase most clearly with the Traditions and the Technocracy,but mystical orders capable of practicing magic have alsohidden within larger orders only reputed to have miraculouspowers or simply assumed to be ordinary sociopolitical forces.Most of these groups possess less than 100 members; many ofthem consist of a mere handful of students surrounding asingle teacher.

InitiationThis portion of each society's description presents you

with a brief history or introduction to the group from thepoint of view of someone inside or an outsider watching. Itis up to you as the Storyteller to determine how much of whatthe order believes is real is actually true in your personalWorld of Darkness, Some very deluded people can stillmanage to leam incredibly potent ways to manipulate real-ity. Some of them might not be doing exactly what theythink they are doing.

OrganizationAny time you have more than one person together,

some sort of natural, or unnatural, order results. This part oftheir description will briefly show you group dynamics andgive insight into how new students are chosen and what theyshould expect.

StyleEach society has some special way in which they believe

their metaphysical powers work. This model includes thetrappings usually associated with or required by the group'spractitioners.

PathsEssentially, this will list the game titles for the various

metaphysical Paths practiced by the magical group in ques-tion. In parentheses, any alternate name the society uses fora Path will be noted. For example the Path of Hellfire whenlisted with the Star Council might be (Fire in the Sky) andindicate the mysterious burns associated with UFO sightings.

Sorcerers Among theTraditions

Many "Awakened" or affinitive mages do not actuallysee any real difference between themselves and their linearpartners. Others indulge in hubris based upon a perceiveddifference between their magic. The truth of the matter issomewhat more complex, of course. In a sense, each type ofmage naturally serves a particular sort of role in their Tradi-tion, normally without any realization of exactly why theyact as they do. The linear mage is the backbone of theTradition, upholding practices of the ages and acting as thestrong link with the beliefs of their culture. The affinitivemage is the pioneer of the future and the hope that it wi l l bebetter. Every Tradition and every faction therefore containsboth linear and affinitive mages, though certain groups'mindsets favor one or the other.

InitiationThe first footsteps of the Akashic pathways are familiar

to most people, at least vaguely, from watching attempts atdramatizing the lifestyle. A lot of hard work and dedicationgoes into learning the techniques that masters make look soeffortless. Of course, not every group that falls under theAkashic rubric practices martial arts, or violence of any kind,Strong ascetic principles practiced on a regular basis can alsocreate the signature unification of body and mind. Theapproach to enlightenment in this manner can be a quest forgrand universal breakthroughs or a methodical search for thetruth one step at a time.

Strongly traditional factions within the Brotherhood,such as the Shi-Ren and Kannagara, teach powerful regi-mens of ancient practices that lead to incredible power overboth mind and body. Even the hot-blooded warriors of theVajrapani study rigid forms of combat maneuvers until theybecome so instinctual that they dynamically flow forth asneeded. The Omoto-ryu religion blended Shinto, Taoism,Buddhism and Christianity with a respect for Budo thatincarnated in Morthei Uyeshiba, the great teacher whofounded Aikido, It is perhaps one of the best examples ofteaching a linear path, formulaic almost in its menu ofmaneuvers, with a stated goal of eventually creating aninfinite repertoire of reactions. As such, it respects theeternal student and master equally as long as they bothcontinue upon the path of what is right.

Organization and StyleThe master-student relationship of the Akashic Broth-

erhood is described very well in the Mage rulebook. Similarly,their style of practice and foci are already noted. Given thatthere is no particular difference between the practices of

Format Akashic Brotherhood

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 25

linear and affinitive Akashic brothers, you should be usingthe same organization and trappings. If your Storyteller usesMerits and Flaws, you might note the especial usefulness andappropriate nature of the Flow of Ki Merit.

PathsThe Internal Do Path and the External Do Path are

common amongst Akashics, in some form or other. Subtlespiritual Paths and magics that strengthen the mind andbody are appropriate, if they have a suitable Resonance. Ifyou use psychic powers as Paths, then Akashic practitionersare likely to have some degree of Mind Shielding or AstralProjection, depending upon their practices, but channeledthrough intense meditation, mantras and other such foci.

Celestial ChorusInitiationAs early as the Egyptian pharaoh, Ikhnaton, and prob-

ably even earlier, the idea of a single, unique higherconsciousness responsible for creation and the order of theuniverse gained a popular voice. Inexplicable events world-wide, from mass miracles to individuals exhibiting powerfulinfluences explained only as divine aid, seem to support theclaims that there is One True Source. The power of faithendows the Celestial Chorus with their mystical might, butit is a power that the wisest amongst them understand isavailable to the most humble mortal.

It might seem as though tapping into the infinite es-sence of the divine assures one of the mindset of affinitivemagic. Ages of religious righteousness and rights and wrongsclearly defined for the masses have created an equally strongopposing pathway, though. Thousands of rituals with theforce of thousands of believers have buil t a veritable fortressof faith for the mystic soul that is willing and able to learntheir divine majesty. The shelter provided by organizedreligious groups is an invaluable boon as well. When youknow that the Creator Itself is behind your power, it is almostas strenuous to walk the path as it is to try to ignore it.

Organization and StyleEvery aspect of the Chorus from divided, often antago-

nistic, factions to devoted worshipers is as equally applicableto the linear path followers as to its Awakened members.The same religious styles and iconic symbols that serveaffinitive devotees grant power to the strictest adherents.

PathsPaths of Binding, Ephemera, Healing and Hellfire,

perhaps some Wards of divine nature.

Cult of EcstasyInitiationMany the practices of the Ecstatics are not seen as true

magic by anyone. Even to cultures that respect the use ofhallucinogenic drugs to obtain trances or pain and depriva-tion to achieve visions, the excesses of many Cultists areregarded as mostly overindulgence of sacred experiences. Tomodem law enforcers they are dangerous elements out tocorrupt the rest of society with their malevolent immorality.The world culture seems to have turned against the massdistribution of various cultures' easy roads to opening the

Under my UmbrellaAs human beings, we like to name, label, classify

and categorize everything. Once we have namedsomething, we think we know it and, thus, to acertain degree, can control it. It becomes a part of ourreality and is thereby somehow suddenly sensible.Nevertheless, this is somewhat of an artificial, man-made convention. It is a practice that we overextend,ever broadening categories until they inevitably in-clude pieces that just don't fit. Even our socialorganizations follow this course. Arrogance and thequest for power drive great leaders to bring more andmore territory under their control. People band to-gether for protection, states become nations, andnations become coalitions or empires. An eerie face-lessness is achieved in the name of compromise andsafety. A bizarre, and ul t imately false, stereotypeevolves in our minds that suggests that everyone fromone of our classifications is really the same.

The same thing has happened in the World ofDarkness. The Traditions are a misshapen clump ofdisparate magical heritages struggling to maintain areality in which they are free to practice their beliefs.The Technocracy, no matter how unified it may appear,is a glued together claptrap of conservative minds whoessentially believe that safety and perfection are worthsacrificing freedom. The Nephandi serve so many darklies that they cannot even truly know one another. TheMarauders don't even pretend to any sort of homogeny.In a world shattered by antagonistic ideals, each strug-gling for control of what is the truth, thousands of cabals,fellowships, cults, orders and individuals cast aside somepart of their identity in the name of safety in numbers.That does not make them the same, though. The Bata'avoudun has little truly in common with the dying Ainumystic. The astronomical physicist may not even under-stand the chemistry behind the same metallurgy that letsher rockets be built. Nevertheless, we want to think ofthem as shamanic Dreamspeakers or scientist Techno-.crats. The only thing they really share is a desire for theright to continue with their studies, beliefs and lifestyles.It is this desire that has been exploited for better andworse by the leaders of the Traditions and the Technoc-racy, and it is in those leaders' interests to paint aunifying veneer of stereotype.

mind to the spiritual. Even the ubiquitous queen, alcohol,which has served as the holy essence fot sacrifice, ritual andeven the madness of the Maenads has been reduced to a crasscommercial product chat is demonized by DUI law andraving hate- mongers.

Unfortunately, the most common reaction amongstEcstatics is to further their rebellion against the establish-ment. If the Powers That Be want to belittle and punishthem for seeking freedom, then fuck the higher ups! This

attitude only strengthens authoritarian response and solidi-fies the position of authorities that treat the public backlash

as an opportunity for power and extra me-too votes comeelection time. The youngest, most rebellious Ecstatics eithernever achieve enlightenment or, at the very least, tend toavoid the older, more insightful members within the Tradi-tion.

Organization and StyleThe Aghoris, Hagalaz and Fellowship of Pan teach

ancient pathways that, however chaotic, actually possess along tradition of powerful passions. The bulk of linear

Ecstatics come from one of these long-standing groups.Complete sensualists such as the Achame and the Klubwerksare too wild and dissonant to create much of a tradition andare likely to fade away eventually if they never find a long-lasting focus. Music, dance, drugs, sex, meditation, fastingand exercise play as vital a part in the advancement of thoseEcstatics who practice some orderly path to enlightenmentas they do amongst the wide-open dreamers.

PathsPaths of Divination and Oneiromancy; psychic Empa-

thy or Empathic Hypnosis, insight into the nature of mankindand the universe.

InitiationWhen the blossoming Council of the Traditions looked

tor those magicians who might hold knowledge outside theirtold, they could not help but notice an incredible variety ofshamanic and spiritual traditions around the world. In amonumentally shallow move, more reminiscent of the broadstroke stereotyping gene rally attributed to the Technocracy,the Tradition Council chose to invite all of the disparatespiritual magicians into the fold as a single metaphysical andpolitical body. The political seat dubbed Spirit in the Hori-zon Chantry was offered, and desperate magicians beleagueredby Technocratic expansion around the world were con-vinced to take up the Traditions' banner.

Unprecedented spiritual connections arose betweenplaces extremely remote from each other. Some of theseUmbral ties came about as masters of the shamanicDreamspeaker groups encouraged young initiates to set outupon long spirit journeys. Others, ironically, owe theirorigins to the very manifest destiny that the Technocracycreated and the Nephandi exploited. Displaced Native

Americans and aborigines passed far from their homelandsinto the lands of their neighbors or even thousands of milesaway. Cruelty and twisted ideals of racial supremacy sub-jected African tribes to capture, transport across the Atlanticand enslavement at the hands of those who treated them asproperty rather than people. Cultures and peoples batteredby the new masters of the physical world sought to defendthemselves with the aid of the spiritual world they had neverabandoned.

Those who make their way into the spiritual fold must,perforce, understand and live through a heritage equallyburdened by this bitterness and exalted by their own shamanicties. May are activists or traditionalists who feel a drive topreserve their culture and history. Others feel a near-instinc-tive pull to the spirit world or are chosen by the spiritsthemselves. Even those who do not Awaken into dynamicmagic still have a huge legacy of cultural indoctrination, beit joy at their shared history or bitterness and a desire to lashout at their perceived oppressors, and either can be a strongmotive for the study of magic.

Organization and Style

In the past few decades, leaders of abused ethnic andcultural groups have been more politically successful thanever before. The plight of oppression continues, but effortsto fight against it earn at least lip service on the floor of theUnited Nations, in the chambers of the United Statesgovernment and over the airwaves that blanket millions oftelevision screens every day. Unfortunately, that is preciselywhat many Dreamspeakers consider such activities — lipservice. Casinos, reservations and alcohol continue to erodethe traditional Native American way of life. Land rightsdisputes push the Australian aborigines further from theDreamtime. A legal system that is blatantly prejudicialgrinds up the lives of black Americans while promotingcontinued slavery under an economic mask. This isn't to saythat matters are universally all bad or that someDreamspeakers don't overreact — those who are caughr upin being victims too often succumb to bitterness and fail toaccomplish anything — but by and l a rge , the Dreamspeakerscontain cultures who have suffered harshly under the indus-trialized age.

"What have you done for us?" the Dreamspeakers askthe Tradition Council increasingly. Council meetings seefewer of the spirit mages every session, as, more often, theyjust stay home to protect their own people. There is also asense that the worst times are beginning. The spirit realmsseethe with deadly storms, and the Gauntlet bites with razorsharp fangs. The dead walk the earth in startling numbers. Itis as if the world has begun its death throes.

Every spiritual tradition at least shares some concept ofstanding as the doorway between the two worlds. Magicdepends upon the relationship between the physical and theimmaterial. The ancient origins of these ways also encouragea similarity in use of foci. Chanting, fire, drums, earth, bones

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 27

Dreamspeakers

and plants are universal and vary only in form. Dreamspeakergroups have rarely paid any attention to the differencesbetween linear and affinitive pathways anyway. The poweralways comes from the spirits and the maintenance of properrelationships with them. Keepers of the Fire, Solitaries,Ghost Wheel Society, Red Spear Society, Baruti and Bata'aalike treat the sorcerer with the respect she earns.

See also The Spirit Ways for a plethora of informationregarding un-Awakened shamans.

PathsCursing, Enchantment , Ephemera, Herbalism,

Oneiromancy and Summoning/Warding; if you use psychicpowers as Paths, Astral Projection is also appropriate.

PathsCursing and Divination; Euthanatos also practice Paths

that could be used to promote healing or (sometimes) death,

InitiationEuthanatos philosophies regard personal choice and the

karma it creates as very important. Euthanatos also believeit is their duty to make choices for others sometimes, mostoften that it is time to move on to another life. An Acarya(mentor) will not discourage a student from any particularPath that might help her along the road to enlightenment,unless he senses great danger of it corrupting her soul. TheTradition's home lies in the cradle of Buddhism and Hindu-ism and, therefore, simultaneously offers an overwhelmingarray of mystical dogma and a call to rise above the illusionof it all. The factions most likely to serve as home to linearEuthanatos are the Natatapas, Madzimbabwe, PomegranateDeme and the Aided.

Organization and StyleSorcerers amongst the Euthanatos differ only in that

they appear to be in a more materialistic karma cycle. Thereis nothing wrong with the necessary steps a soul must takethrough multiple lives in the quest for enlightenment, solong as the sorcerer is true to the Wheel. It is worth notingthat the act of choosing life or death for another often meanshelping them live. There are Buddhist and Hindu Euthanatoswho believe in the necessity of death but will not corruptthemselves in such a way. Fate will bring those who deservedeath into situations where they will meet it. The true dutyof the death mage, as they see it, is to ease the suffering andconfusion that living and dying causes, so that the soul wiltnot have to repeat its mistakes.

The faction styles and a general list of foci are found inMage Revised, Other ways of focusing magical energy usedby the Euthanatos include meditation, fasting, medicine andphysical representations of the Wheel. Even games thatencourage concentration or test one's character are useful.One can watch for telltale signs of frustration, gloating,obsessive behavior, tecklessness and learning potential acrossa game table, all while promoting joy in the world andwithout endangering anyone.

InitiationThe history of the Hermetic tradition is a long one,

extending back to Egyptian alchemy and spells. Formalizedduring the Dark Ages into approximately its current shape,the Order receives some criticism for doggedly clutching toits ancient truths even in the faces of the other Traditions.A hopeful initiate into the Order undergoes tests, trials anda long apprenticeship. The secrets of the Enochian languageand the powerful Seats of Solomon become second nature tothe student. She learns to craft numerological patterns,wands and pentagrams. Every Hermetic student is initiatedinto the linear paths of the Order's theories. Many of themstay that way,

One of the great weaknesses of the Order comes, per-haps, from its own image of the universe. Even as thealchemist seeks to create perfection from the base metal, sothe Awakened see themselves as above the lesser mage. Thisarrogance and hubris is not universal, but it is certainly apowerful force in the Order. Through their own trainingmethods, they push the student into a sorcerer mindset andthen lord it over them if they never "rise above" that state.With the crashing fall of Doissestep and the destruction ofmost of the affinitive Masters, theorists like Practicus Hura iare finally able to put forth their proofs that neither methodof magic is superior, just different.

Organization and StyleThere is a saying, "Civil servant equals civil master."

The implication is that those who perform your everydayaffairs are really in charge of those affairs. This has long beentrue within the Order of Hermes, Awakened Masters placedthemselves so high above the society around them, oftenremoving themselves to pure Horizon realms or spirit do-mains, that they left the management of the day to day totheir "lessers," Realistically, those who achieve an affinitiveAwakening are merely accorded status because it is tradi-rional. Like kings born to the title, they sometimes fall intothe trap of feeling that they especially deserve it. Looking atthe smoking ruins of their kingdom, some of these princes arestarting to see the value in those they once saw as merebuilding blocks.

The vast and incredible influence of the Order before itsfall left a legacy that still reflects in the stories of thefantastic. So widespread were its arts, and so intticatelydependent upon a pool of specialized, talented craftsmen,that even today it is easy to find suitable ritual paraphernaliaand texts. What is difficult is sepatating the good stuff fromthe garbage, manufactured or printed by companies that

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Euthanatos

Order of Hermes

CHAPTER TWO: SORCEROUS SOCIETIES 29

either intentionally or ignorantly water down, romanticizeor outright lie about magic.

PathsAlchemy (especially among the Solificati), Binding

and Warding, Conjuration, Enchantment, Hellfire (or otherForces creations) and Summoning.

Sons of EtherInitiation

There is a rugged individuality found in the Son of Ethersoul that drives him to seek understanding of reality like astarving man looking for food. Once he achieves the break-through that marks his real-life achievement, everythingelse is almost gluttony. Having created a model of reality, theSon of Ether fits everything into it, continuously expandinghis theories to explain the functions of the universe as he seesit and the interaction of his creations with those theories. Attimes, individual Etherites may become fervent about dis-carded ideas or lost secrets that once embraced so muchinterest that they possess a body of beliefs and lore sufficientto provide a path. Other times, an Etherite may discoversome principle so difficult to integrate with the rest of reality

that he may only develop it one facet of creation at a time.Such individuals follow a linear path, but amongst the Sonsof Ether, they are a minority. All too often, the radicaltheories and models of the Etherites die with them, leavingno path for others to follow.

Organization and StyleRecognition within the Sons of Ether means work. The

brilliance of your creations and the sublime understanding ofyour personal theories is what is important. If you aren'tperforming groundbreaking research, you better be busyexpanding upon the work of someone who has, or you are justwasting precious grant money or the time others bother tospend listening to you. Gaining a teacher amongst theEtherites means impressing him with your intelligence oryour usefulness to his projects. After that, your contributionsto Science are what matter.

The apparatuses, machines and devices of the Sons ofEther are what generally identify them to others. Their toolsare the source of their power and the result of their inspira-tion. Nothing works if it does not fit into an Etherite'stheories. In addition to those foci listed in Mage Revised,some Scientists use artifacts from ancient, lost civilizations.

PathsTechnological Alchemy, Conveyance, Weathercraft.

Note that Sons of Ether practice a wide range of techno-mysticism. To some, technology harnesses powers in waysthat can only be described as magical. To others, it's extraor-dinary science. Rarely do two Sons of Ether share the sametheories unless they trained together.

VerbenaInitiationLike the Dreamspeakers and Celestial Chorus, the Ver-

bena owe their origins to roots so old that they are buried toodeep to find. Verbena unification has been a natural growth,stemming from a common European cultural basis, powerfulgroup symbols like the Tree of Life and a shared persecution.Verbena view the twin paths of linear and affinitive magic asa necessary division that naturally occurs, like male andfemale or night and day. Most of them are aware of somedifference, however small, but really don't care. Certainly, amajority of linear Verbena gravitate towards the Gardenersof the Tree and the Twisters of Fate factions, while mostaffinitive Verbena are attracted to the Moon-Seekers andthe Lifeweavers. Howevet, this is just a natural tendency ofthe like minded to flock together,

Organization and StyleVerbena covens usually contain mages and sorcerers.

Wisdom of age, insight and past lives earn respect beyondany concern for how one perceives magic. It is only natural,however, for some conflict to result between traditionalistswho desire that the old rites be faithfully kept and progressiveswho want to expand into new ways. The initiation tests varyfrom coven to coven, but they always reflect the personalityof the student and a sense of connection to the natural world(howevet unfotgiving Mother Nature may be). Her magicalstyle and foci will reflect the types of magic her coventeaches her,

PathsCursing, Divination, Herbalism and Shapeshifting.

Some Verbena might perform Enchantment as well.

Virtual AdeptsThough the computer grants unparalleled communica-

tion to vast segments of the world population, it has not yetproved to be our salvation. War, disease, hate and miserycontinue to exist. In fact, new crimes find their creations inthe cyber realms, like twisted reflections of the physicalworld. Hate groups put up websites; thieves steal ctedit cardnumbers or even personal information about people's lives.Raving antisocials curse, rant and threaten with a passionbom of the sudden ability to vent every pent up aggressionthey have been too cowatdly to express to those around

them. Nevertheless, it is a powerful tool and one whosepotential we have undoubtedly only begun to tap.

Organization and StyleGiven the vast hordes of people who manage to use

computers every day without even a glimmer of Awakening,linear computer mages should be no real surprise. In fact, analmost supernatural realization of the capabilities hiddenwithin computers is much more common than a completeAwakening to the idea that the computer might be able tocontrol the entire physical universe. As Elitists, of course,the Awakened, affinitive Virtual Adept definitely looksdown upon his satellite imagery enhanced lessers. Mostlinear Virtual Adepts have no power over reality outside oftheir computers and rhe Digital Web. inside the DigitalWeb, though, a potent linear Adept can hold his own withno one the wiser.

Obviously, the linear computer mage is just as much atechnician, hacker, scientist or techno-geek as any otherVirtual Adept, She just doesn't understand some of the linksyet. Foci ate predictably the same computers, programs andequipment that their affinitive brethren use,

PathsScrying (on the physical world and in the Digital Web),

within the Digital Web only — Binding and Warding,Conjuration and Summoning. Remember that Virtual Ad-epts tend to use exceptional science, though a few "wizards"(to borrow a Unix term) also have a decidedly superstitiousbent to their hyper-computing capabilities. Virtual Adeptsare also good candidates for Cyberkinesis and Cyberparhypsychic powers,

Orphans and Hollow OnesInitiationThe dispossessed mages of the Orphans and those called

Hollow Ones generally piece their magic together from bitsstolen from other Traditions. The result is a sort of cobbled-together eclectic mix of mythic heritage. A linear Orphan orHollow One is the same. She has gathered a hodgepodge ofpaths from sources ranging from New Age practices toarchaic, forgotten arts,

Organization and StyleThere is virtually no organization amongst most Or-

phan or Hollow Ones groups. At best, they are loose socialgroups with a few common meeting places. The magical styleof each individual is just a mix of whatever magical practicesshe has picked to follow. Foci are similarly jumbled collec-tions of items deemed important to the sorcerer.

PathsIt probably doesn't need saying, but so long as you and

your Storyteller can come to an agreement as to how yoursorcerer views magic, then whatever Paths fit that vision ateavailable to her.

30 Sorcerer

Technocratic Sorcerers(Extraordinary Citizens)

InitiationThough the Technocracy boasts hundreds of Enlight-

ened members, most of its true strength comes from thesupport of the Masses. Chief among these are the fewextraordinary citizens who manage to grasp the Technocracy'shyper-advanced theories — the doctor who manages tograsp a treatment for lymphoma, the highly trained techni-cian who can maintain a secret shuttlecraft, the computerengineer who delivers phenomenal precision in his clock-work numbers and parts. These extraordinary citizens havea gift to expand beyond the normal bounds of science, just assorcerers tap into the wellspring of the mystical.

The Guide to the Technocracy is an invaluable aid inunderstanding the scientific mages' society and the rules thatgovern it. Ironically, probably the most clear difference betweenlinear and affinitive mages is within the Technocracy's ranks.The Order of Reason has pushed for change for the sake ofmankind since its inception. As the Union increasingly maps,catalogs and labels reality, the difficulty of continuing to pushthe envelope grows. Mundane craftsmen and intellectuals are asmuch responsible for winning mankind over to the Techno-cratic ideals as the inventor geniuses whose work theydisseminated were. As their own webs of static control closeover them, the Technocracy is discovering that the linearscientists may be their future.

Organization and StyleExtraordinary scientists fill the gap between the mundane

specialists that practice the everyday works of the Technocracyand the dynamic visionaries who strive to make the futurebrighter. They are capable of understanding theories that still

defy what the general public comfortably accepts but that havealready been established with the elite scientific communitywidely enough to at least be acknowledged as "possible." Thelinear technocrats of Iteration X build cybernetic devices,fusion-powered machines and supercomputers. Their New WorldOrder contemporaries practice incredible multilevel satellitesurveillance programs, deep hypnotic programming and sub-liminal propaganda. Progenitors limited to linear paths createdesigner drugs, practice genetic engineering and limited clon-ing. The Syndicate manipulates national economies, remakesideas by commercializing them and generally assures that moneyis the modern God. Void Engineers venture into space andvoyage to the bottom of the sea.

All sound familiar? That's the point. The linear mage ofthe Technocracy is performing the techniques taught to himby his Awakened counterparts. However, his Awakenedcounterpart is having greater trouble coming up with newtricks. The two groups' foci and styles grow closer by the day,

Paths"Alchemy" and "Enchantment" work for the Iteration X,

as creations of scientific devices and formulae. "Divination" and"Fascination" suffice for the New World Order, to representtheir command of personality and psychology, as well as mediamanipulation. "Conveyance" and "Conjuration" cover theVoid Engineers' devices. "Alchemy" and "Healing" fit theProgenitors, as drugs or advanced treatments. "Cursing" and"Divination" give the Syndicate power to affect odds andoutcomes. In all cases, the citizen sees what he does merely as anextension of highly advanced scientific principles; although aProgenitor extraordinary scientist might recognise her work asspecial and advanced, she'd hardly consider it magical. In allcases, the Technocrat uses special procedures and devices toperform the "rituals" necessary.

Of course, the Traditions are hardly theonly magicians with sorcerous counterparts.Several other groups of organized magiciansstill exist, with their own praxes, their owndesigns and goals. Shielded from the vicissi-tudes of mystic warfare by their ownignorance, they have their own take on thepractice of magic.

The Ancient Order ofThe Aeon Rites

InitiationIf the study of magic is a search for truth and the practice

of magic is a pursuit of perfection, then the Ancient Orderof the Aeon Rites truly have a pure vision. Combining the

mystic threads from thousands of years of civilization, theOrder's sorcerers seek out the purest original paeans todivinity in each magical practice. Hidden in the language ofangels — Enochian — the Order's practitioners find thesecrets of the Aeon Rites, the great magics that will usher ina new, pure, golden era. Once they have mastered the properformulae and chanted the hidden words handed to man bythe Creator, the world will blossom into perfection. TheOrder truly believes that its practices herald the way to abetter world for all humanity.

From the manuscripts and rites passed down from 1873by Master Agrippa — the Order's modern founder — thegroup initiated (and continues to initiate) compassionate,dedicated seekers into its mysteries. Convinced that theyhave the Great Answer and One Truth at the hean of theirrites, the Ancient Order firmly guides its members andcompanions down a humanitarian road. Other magicians

Other Sorcerers

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 31

find themselves alternately aided and chastised by the Or-der, which believes that all sorcerers have a duty to use theirpowers in service to the rites that will eventually bringhumanity to a new age of enlightenment.

OrganizationAs a pseudo-secret cult society, the Ancient Order keeps a

multi-tiered initiation structure. New pupils make up the outerlevel; these are the first-, second-and third-degree magicians—those who have just joined or who still struggle to unlock thebasic secrets. These pupils perform mundane work on behalf ofthe Order, Next is the inner level, three grades of brothers andsisters (frateres and sorores) — those who've unlocked enoughknowledge to pursue and promote greater truth to the Order'smysteries (that is, those who can develop or master variousPaths of magic). These mid-level members also oversee impor-tant Order matters like finance, local political connections andthe dissemination of secrets or the training of novices. Finally,the three degrees of magisters devote most of their time tofurthering the Order's esoteric studies. The magisters still havetheir own lives and concerns, of course, but they also hold thegreatest mysteries, including the Order's most valued texts andsecret knowledge.

Beyond the mortal realms, the Order believes that itsmost enlightened magisters pass on to become Secret Watch-ers, disembodied spirits that guide the group in its search.Indeed, founder Johannes Agrippa has appeared from timeto time to offer his advice and wisdom—be he ghost or spirit,none in the Order can definitively say, but he has often givenaid even to fledgling sorcerers and seems truly concernedwith the continued existence of the Order. As "tenth de-gree" initiates, these Secret Watchers comprise the mostknowledgeable of the Order's members, and only the SecretWatchers can initiate other magisters into their ranks afterdeath. Unfortunately, the Secret Watchers rarely seem toattend the functions of the Order; apparently, their higherconcerns in guiding humanity keep them tather occupied.

Materially, the Order functions much like many othersecret fraternities: Members contribute a small sum of moneyfor facilities (in this case, the AOAR sponsors tabernaclesfor quiet study, storage of ritual materials and meetings) andparticipate in charitable events. Such events also serve asgood recruitment drives, chances to look for other helpfuland intelligent individuals who might have the minds tolearn the Aeon Rites. The center of the Order, though, is inAmsterdam, where Johannes Agrippa's copies of the com-plete rites are stored.

StyleMeticulous, precise and ritualistic, the AOAR magi-

cians use elaborate and carefully constructed trappings toperform their rites. Each tool has a symmetry with theOtherworld and with the numeric keys hidden in the ritesthemselves. As a result, each tool must be built to the truespecifications prescribed in the rites. A wand must be exactly

so long; a tablecloth just so big; a circular pattern made in justsuch an amount of time. Each ritual is equal parts prepara-tion and execution, and if even a single minor error results,the entire ritual must be redone. Each sorcerer thus builds hisor her own tools and pores over the tomes of the Order tomemorize and reference the steps for each rite.

In their tabernacles, the AOAR sorcerers don elaboraterobes and carry wands all sized to their personal numericcorrespondences. Swords, pentacles, altars and cups haveboth symbolic and practical applications. A participant canexpect stands with heavy tomes opened to the appropriatepages for each ritual, as the AOAR members reference theexact words, steps and motions for each casting. Even in theoutside world, the AOAR sorcerers rely heavily on theprecise steps that they've memorized; to bring about a perfectworld, one must follow the perfect steps, after all.

PathsAOAR magicians have a wide range of skills available

—Hellfire, Summoning, Binding and Warding and WeatherControl are only some of the more common powers. Nearlyany Path that could be formulaically studied can make itsway into the AOAR's ritual grimoires, decoded from theAeon Rites themselves.

Bata'aOnce, the Bata'a comprised one of the largest organized

Crafts of magic, surpassing even the numbers of some Tradi-tions, Since that time, the Ascension War has ground awayat magical societies and cteated some new bedfellows. MostBata'a have thrown in with the Dreamspeakers. Neverthe-less, they retain a degree of cultural identity far greater thanthat left to such splinter groups as the Templars. The Bata'arepresent one of the largest still living magical traditions inthe world.

InitiationThe brutal legacy of exploitation and slavery by Europe-

ans hungry for easy wealth left a vicious scar upon the psycheand spiritual landscape of the New World, Long ago, beforethe slavers came, the island people of the Caribbean werecalled the Qua'ra. They practiced an art known as quinshi—the ability to act as a link between the worlds of spirit andflesh. In return for giving their bodies to ghosts and spiritswho desired to experience the material realm, they receivedfavors and power. The neighboring Arawaks and Caribpeople called those talented in quinshi choles, or Godflowers.Especially devout choles gained their villages plentiful har-vests and fishing, benevolent weather, warnings of misfortuneand other boons. In return, the people forgave the choles thestrange and often dangerous behaviors the spirits made themperform. This paradise was lost to the European invaders,though. Spanish and French settlers brought disease andmurderous pirates. They even enslaved the natives to worktheir farms and fought those who sought to keep their land.

32 SORCERER

The Qua'ra people died en masse and, by 1550, were nomore. Determined explorers chose to import black slaves totake their place.

According to tradition, seven tribes were first chainedand brought to the Caribbean as slaves from Africa. Earlyslaves managed to escape and fled to hide amongst the last ofthe Qua'ra. The last Qua'ra taught the earliest black escapeesthe arts of quinshi. The spiritual wisdom they gained re-sembled the beliefs of their own traditional African religions,and over time, the two became one. Christian conversionsby their former masters also entered the mix, creating creedslike Voudun and Santeria. The forgotten gods of the Qua'rabecame the loa of the new traditions. From the sacred drumsused to awaken the spirits, the new magical society drew itsname, and from the spirit world, to which they sacrificedtheir bodies, they drew their power.

OrganizationStrong personal, community and spiritual relationships

join to create the Bata'a lifestyle and society. Traditionsemphasize union in a number of ways. The sacred partner-ship between male and female Bata'a is known as Marassa.Most of the partnerships culminate in marriage, but a fewremain as nonsexual symbols of union. Most Bata'a alsoclaim lineage to one of the seven original tribes, whom they

call Rangi, or colors, in honor of the many-hued RainbowSerpent goddess. The Rangi serve as extended families andtight knit communities. Anyone within a particular Rangi,whether a normal person or a Bata'a, expects to give andreceive help from his fellows if he needs it. The relationshipbetween the material and spirit worlds is extremely impor-tant to the Bata'a sorcerer. Through sacrifice of food, livestockand themselves, the society strives to gain the favor of theirancestor ghosts, Les Invisibles, and powerful godlike spirits,the loa. To those who achieve it and outsiders who observeit, the power gained is regarded, rightly, with fear. The Bata'asee that the dangerous, sacred duty they perform may be theonly way to break the chains that continue to bind theirpeople. Even without the physical chains of slavery, theRangi are bound by poverty, exploitation, prejudice andhorrible living conditions.

StyleLes Invisibles are the wraiths of the Caribbean Skinlands

(detailed in the Wraith Player's Guide). Some are ancientQua'ra still around after centuries. Others are ancestors ofthe Rangi, slaves who died during the horrible years of chainsor new ghosts resulting from the violence, disease and miserythat still plagues the region. Les Mysteres, or the loa, arepowerful beings, not quite "gods" but functionally the same.

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 33

Some, especially chose practicing Santeria, see the loa asmessengers from greater gods or God. The greatest desire ofevery Bata'a is to ensure beneficial relations between theircommunity and the spirit realm. This means serving theirancestors and the loa with respect and by acting as their"horses" — that is, letting themselves be possessed by spiritswho wish to have a physical form. This practice is divine, butincredibly dangerous; when one opens the gateway for spiritsto step inside, evil spirits known as baka sometimes take theinvitation. With the Sixth Maelstrom raging through thedeadlands, even once benevolent spirits are desperate andangry. The Bara'a job has become more important andterrifying than ever before.

Most Bata'a deal with the Petro, who are dark spirits ofthe elements and conflict, and the Rada, who are spirits ofhealing and wisdom. The Rada, Ayida-Wedo, is the SerpentLady of a Thousand Rainbows, and acts as a feminineprinciple of creation and protection. Baron Samedi is thechief Haitian god of Death, and he kills or grams necroman-tic powers. (Further details on Baron Samedi can be found inBlood Magic: The Secrets of Thaumaturgy.) Change, orShango, is a warlike Petro who commands the weather, gunsand explosives. Damballah is the Petro serpent Father ofFalling Waters and Serpent of the Sky, consort to Ayida-Wedo. Erzulie, a Rada and one of the most popular foa, iscalled upon in the name of love, lust and beauty. Ghede is aRada form of Baron Samedi who watches over the dead.Legba is the Rada Walking God, who guards the crossroadsbetween all journeys, whether physical or spiritual. TheRada Loco rules healing, herbs and visions. Fire, wrath andliberation are the spheres of the Petro Ogoun theChainbreaker. The Petro Simbi represents the elements ofair and water, and grants freedom or knowledge of magicalpowders and potions.

The Bata'a originally appeared in The Book of Crafts.Additional information can also be found in the MageStorytellers Companion.

PathsAll of the power achieved by the Bata'a comes through

interaction with spirits. Most Bata'a believe that the "Ava-tar" of an Awakened mage is simply a spirit who has chosento permanently ride the mage in question. The Bata'a haveno respect for those who do not acknowledge the origin oftheir Avatar and the responsibility it represents. Of course,anyone from their own society who has been chosen as apermanent host is regarded with respect, especially as theycan still host other spirits. Sorcerers are those who manageto leam charms from the spirits who possess them. Thisknowledge is known as Mjane, and though it can be usedwithout the spirit's help, a devout Bata'a must always re-member its source. Misusing such power, without a spirit'shelp or permission is a selfishness that the spirits may notforgive. Not all of the choirs, known as horses, or LesChevaux, can perform any magic without the spirits' aid.

The loa and the ancestors choose some completely normalpeople as gateways. Every chole is eligible for the title of paeor papa, or mae or mama, granted by popularity amongst theRangi, not according to actual power.

Conjuration, Conveyance, Cursing, Divination (se-crers told by the spirits, actually), Fascination, Healing,Herbalism, Summoning, Binding, and Warding andWeathercraft are all possible with the help of the loa;through Summoning and Binding they may even createzombies (see Hunter: The Reckoning's sourcebook TheWalking Dead).

The Children of OsirisI am the life; I am the resurrection.— from pre-Christian Egyptian tomb fragments

InitiationIn ancient times, prehistoric vampires of incredibly

potent blood ruled as divine beings over men, and someclaim that even the god-king of Egypt, Osiris, was seduced bytheir power. Whether the lord of the resurrection martyredhimself to steal the power of the demons of blood or made aterrible mistake that cost him his life, is uncertain. His fatehas been the source of deadly sect warfare that has waged formillennia across sorcerous and undead lines. For centuries,worshipers worked in conjunction with a sect of vampireswho followed a small core of kindred who claimed to bedirectly descended from the god-king. Harsh regimens ofself-deprivation and devout prayer granted vampire andmortal alike incredible control of their bodies and souls.Recently, the vampiric priests of the Children of Osiris haveall disappeared. Vampires in the know believe that theirSetite enemies finally eliminated the ancient sect. Mortalmembers of the Children of Osiris have faded into obscurity,but some whisper that the cult has merely returned to theirancient homeland and is engaged in strange activities nearvarious ancient sites.

OrganizationFor a very long time, the Children of Osiris organized

around temples led by vampires practicing the rigid pathknown as Bardo. This strict discipline tied control of thevampiric nature into the religious beliefs in Ma'at, or truth,balance and right. Strange dichotomies existed, as the im-mortal blood drinkers seemed to embody the eternal natureof the god and yet were forbidden from granting their cursednature to others. Apparently, some of the most enlightenedamongst the undead priests learned to escape death repeat-edly even in ways beyond that of the blood demons. Theresurrection promised by their god, as living beings, re-mained beyond their power, however.

The mortal Children continue the quest for eternal life,and now that they are free from the unnatural concernssparked by their undead leaders, their vision of their god mayfinally become clear. In recent times, apparently coinciding

34 SORCERER

with the disappearance of their undead priests, the Childrenof Osiris have removed themselves to Egypt. Ancient templesresonate with chanting, forgotten tombs open in efforts toraise their inhabitants, and new acolytes plunge into themysteries. Though the ancient god may not have beenresurrected, it is as if the hopes of cult have been,

StyleThe Children of Osiris share many of the foci and style

elements of the Cult of Isis; however, they are predomi-nantly a resurrection cult. Embalming, tombs, funerarypractices and protection for the dead until their return are allparts of Osirian ritual.

PathsAlchemy and Summoning, Binding and Warding (Nec-

romantic). If you use Mummy, some mummy hekau mightmake useful Paths, with a little work — the Sekhem cost canbecome a cost in mana instead. Don't give away all of themummies' secrets, though; in general, it's best to assume thatmummy hekau, if used by a sorcerer, must be reformulated(research work!) and is one level higher.

The Cult of IsisInitiationAlmost no mystical heritage has endured so long or

reached such incredible heights and depths of power andpersecution as that of the magicians inheriting the ancientteachings of Isis. One could spend a lifetime of study simplyfollowing theirorigins and fate throughout the ages. Foundedin service to the goddess-on-earth, the sister-wife's followerspledged loyalty to the principles of Ma'at and learned thesecrets of the Ra-hekau. Possessed of the very names ofcreation, they shaped an Art upon the banks of the Nile thathas survived as one of the wonders of the world. Love for herbrother-husband, the god-king Osiris, led Isis to turn fromthe pursuit of the teachings of Thoth. Her associates becameengrossed in the fraternal war between Osiris and his demon-tainted dark brother, Set.

Some of the descendants of her magical tradition be-lieve that this marked the fall of humanity's chance toascend into the blessed fields of eternity through Thoth'slearning. They say that she forgot the name of Ra in thename of Osiris and cursed mankind to struggle for a paleshadow of the mystery so auspiciously revealed to them.Others hasten to argue that had the goddess not actedagainst Set, who had become representative of Apophis onearth, that all of Ma'at would have been cast into the void.They claim that she sacrificed her life and personal attain-ment of immortality in order to ensure that hope remainedto restore the Balance of Truth for the entire world. Asevidence, they offer the proof that Western mysticism virtu-ally all descends in some part from the knowledge of Isis andThoth-Hermes-Trismegistus.

OrganizationDuring the goddess-queen's lifetime, the Cult of Isis was

a loose confederation of magicians whose peaceful medita-tions gave way to desperate warfare against the dark god andhis corrupt followers. After the death of his mother, reput-edly at the hands of Set, Horus the Avenger seized control ofthe Cult and actively pursued every opportunity to cast offthe yoke of the serpent. These magicians became the back-bone of the priesthood for virtually every god in Egypt, Setand his vampiric children loathed her legacy and spentmillennia tearing it apart. By the reign of Cleopatra, the Culthad become a dull band of drug addicts and prostitutes,surrendering even the sacred Spell of Life to their enemy andforgetting the rites of their gods.

Ironically, the very same weakness resulted in a sort ofresurrection for the inheritors of Isis. As Egypt fell to Romanrule, her culture was plundered as effectively as her tombsand riches. Fertility cults halfway across Europe breathed thesacred name of Isis and tied her power to their own goddesses.After Set's sudden exodus from Egypt around the thirddecade CE, Isis's immortal son, Horus, tried to rebuild theCult of Isis into a useful tool. A few factors seem destinedperpetually to hamper the recovery of the Cult's originalpower and unity, Horus continues to treat them as lesser,m o r t a l , beings and ruthlessly conceals some of their ownancient secrets from them. The dilution into hundreds ofpagan mystery cults has created innumerable branches andsects, sometimes with dangerously radical beliefs. Resent-ment of centuries of being treated like simple children eventhreatens to cause rebellion amongst the modern Cult againstthe eternal Son of their founder.

Branches of the Cult of Isis lie directly to or play part inmany other mystical organizations within the World ofDarkness. The Hermetic House of Shaea shares the ancientoriginsof the Cult, and it is certain that some members of thisHouse belong to the Cult of Isis and vice versa. Fallenmembers of the Cult remain twisted kindred of the Followersof Set, their morals and spirits broken by the dark god'scorruption. Many of the undying mummies of the Shemsu-heru owe their very safety and preservation to the Cult.There are even Isis cultists of orgiastic nature found inEcstatic and Verbena cabals and of studious bent amongstthe Alexandrian Celestial Chorus and Hermetic Solificati.It is important to note that the Cutt of Isis is by no means aunified force — factions even work against each other forpolitical gain or even out of ignorance of their rivals' origins.

StyleSeven thousand years of learning has created a plethora

of different images of the original Ra-Hekau of Isis. Anumber of factors have successfully remained throughoutthe ages, however. Sensuality, sex and their power in ritualand social interaction have always played a part in Cult

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 35

magic. Hieroglyphics, Demotic Egyptian chanting andgeomantic architecture continue to empower rituals. Amu-lets with powerful symbols, including the scarab, ankh, djetpillar and faience images of ancients gods are not even thatdifficult to find 2,000 years after the final fall of Egypt toinvaders. Some even suggest that the gigantic millenniumcelebration held at the Great Pyramids on the New YearsEve when 1999 gave way to 2000 was a powerful Cult ritualwith thousands of unwitting participants.

PathsAlchemy, oracular Astrology and Enchantment of amu-

lets and statues. Some Heating directed toward fertilitywould also be appropriate.

InitiationThe Cult of Mercury inherited practices directly from

Greek and Roman sources. From Roman cultures they de-rived the idea of expanding upon the power of orderly massrituals and drew unparalleled numbers of initiates during thegrowing fervor of large mystery cults such as those of Mithrasand Isis. Great gatherings of hundreds of Mercurian follow-ers granted sorcerers the ability to enact spells that assuredtheir positions of protected wealth and political dominance.Eventually, even a couple of Senators of the Republic owedtheir rank to the Cult.

Constantine's conversion of Rome to Christianity hurtthe Cult badly. Its practices declined in favor of the masteryof single powerful mages, while its initiates scattered into thearms of the Church,

OrganizationToday it is difficult to hold together masses of devoted

practitioners in virtually any environment. The survivingCult is motivated by a few very charismatic sorcerers andtheir deacons' hard work. The modern Cult's followersexpect a return for their participation, learning their parts ofrituals in expectation that some portion of their efforts willreward them and their families,

StyleRitualistic in the extreme, at least 100 participants are

required for any creation of magical effect. Individual mas-ters may in cases of emergency call upon Wards or spellspreviously empowered by their congregation for later use,but they may never simply cast spells on the fly. Dependingon the actual spell invoked, the initiates, clothed in cleanwhite robes, may burn candles or incense or simply holdsome representative object. The entire assemblage intonesthe incantation in Latin and ancient Greek.

PathsFortune (Prosperity and Providence) and Wards. It is

important to remember that every Mercurian Path is allritual. To reflect this, assume that the sorcerer gains no

instanr effect from her level in a Path, but gains two extrarituals at each level. Thus, a Cult of Mercury magician withPath of Providence 3 would begin with nine rituals in thatparticular Art.

See also Dead Magic for information regarding the Cultof Mercury's foundation.

Maison LibanInitiationThe first decade of the 11th century featured one of the

dark signs of ill-fated Tremere's growing power hunger in theform of the Hermetic Schism and the resultant destructionof House Diedne. According to teachings of Liban mentors,Mathieu de Calice was a trusted pontifex once apprenticedto Master Goratrix. Discomfited by the brutal magical frat-ricide of the schism, de Calice began specialization in thepractice of the Order's Parma Magica and in various artsdestined to defy scrying attempts. When he became aware ofthe plans behind Goratrix's experiments with vampiricblood, de Calice fled to Northern France. Within a month,the conversion to vampirism erupted, with Tremere himselfseeking immortality.

Fortunately for the Magus de Calice and his appren-tices, the Tremere's new difficulties with local vampirescombined with the effort necessary to bother tracking downa few insignificant expatriates, along with deCalice's protec-tive and evasive magics, allowed a small house to survive tothe modemday. Initially, the Tremere vampire-mages movedquietly, careful not to let their nature be discovered by theOrder of Hermes as a whole. It was 150 years before the Orderreacted with the Massasa purge, and that violence lasted fora century. The treachery of Goratrix, who had been assignedto France, also shielded the house's presence, as most strangereports of Tremere-like secretive orders were quickly blamedupon the old master. In the end, de Calice was forgotten toeveryone—except his few apprentices and, perhaps, Tremerehimself.

OrganizationOne of Marhieu de Calice's first actions was to hide the

House at a basic level. He renamed the tiny group, whichconsisted mostly of himself and his apprentices and laterFrench and Spanish refugees whom they adopted and pro-tected from Tremere persecution. In recognition of the factthat they remained human, the house became Maison Liban— Liban meaning "live, leave, survive" in the tongue of the

Visigoths.Students are encouraged to keep their private lives separate

from their magical practice, yet to maintain normal respectablehabits and employment. Unless deemed responsible enough tolearn the Art, a sorcerer's family, friends or co-workers maynever even know that they have been the beneficiaries ofnumerous spells of protection cast on their behalf.

The Cult of Mercury

Maison Liban are not crusaders, though. They do notencourage violence or blatant activities. Even the relation-ship between master and student only requires students ro betitled initiates until they are deemed worthy to teach, whenthey become a prater or mater. The "House" Liban does stillrecognize a single greatest teacher with leadership responsi-bilities earned through age and respect of peers. In deferenceto their founder, this position retains its honorific, Pontifex.

StyleNot all of the trappings of Hermetic sorcery have been

left behind by the Liban nor even all of the antesanguinarypractices of House Tremere. Seals, rings and magical circlespredominate, due to their natural resonance with protectiverituals. Symbols remnant from Hermetic tradition still finduse, as does Latin, descending from a trove of tomes appar-ently plundered by the Visigoths from Rome, but both aresupplemented with a liberal use of the Gothic tongue. Theconcepts of contagion and sympathy remain very strong;objects that resemble or once belonged to the focus of a spellplay a prevalent part in nearly every mystical ceremony.

PathsCountermagic (Parma Magica), Protection from Scrying

and Divination and Summoning, Binding and Warding.

Nebu-Afef, The Order ofThe Golden Fly

InitiationReputedly, during the reign of the Pharaoh Ramses the

Great, the Exodus from Egypt was foreshadowed by a seriesof divine disasters that befell the land. One of the productsof that horrific devastation was bitterness and a deep desirefor revenge amongst the Egyptian people. A small group ofwarrior-mystics, each of whom had lost their firstborn childand suffered from the plagues of warning, gathered togetherin a brotherhood bom of hatred.

After years of research and experimentation, their workpaid off — maybe. They discerned the secret names of theangel sent by the god of the people of Israel and determinedto control it. A summoning was begun and the ways wereprepared. Blood was cast upon the door, a thousand locustsburned in an incense of sulfur, waters from the Red Seascribed symbols in a circle of dark, wet sand and the firstbornchild of an Israelite was offered as sacrificial bait. The angelof Heaven descended upon the house of the mystics. Thesorcerers demanded recompense, and the angel assented.

Gloating in their new patron, the mystics hungrilylearned the secrets of Heaven. They gathered charms tobring plagues or raise fires. What they failed to consider isthat they had not controlled the angel. The angel, Mastema,felt anger and hurt pride because it had not been allowed tocomplete its reputedly divine task of murdering Moses. Theangel had turned from the service of Heaven of its ownaccord, corrupted by its own deeds in the apocalyptic ravag-

ing of Egypt, It answered their demands with its own desites,wants bom of an unexpected love of death and fear. Theorder was taught only the darkest of magics.

The name of the Order of the Golden Fly comes fromthe ancient Egyptian practice of honoring brave warriorswith a piece of jewelry in the shape of a golden fly. Essen-tially, this badge of honor was the Egyptian equivalent to theIron Cross or the Purple Heart. The original members of thesecretive order were all dangerous soldiers, their skills al-ready honed by magical edges, even before their tapping intothe might of an angel. It is mere irony that their service to afallen angel suggests the name might imply the Lord of theFlies.

Despite its Egyptian origins, the Order has not remainedin Africa for its entire history. Always remaining rathersmall, as its power derives mostly from the contact with asingle angelic figute, the Order has, at times, entirely up-rooted and fled persecution by other powers. Notably, theforebears of the Celestial Chorus, descending from theprinciples of Ikhnaton, drove the Order out of Egypt duringthe Coptic petiod. For a time, the order survived in Turkey,before violent confrontation with Muslim zealots drove itsmembers into Greece, By the early 20th century, they werehiding in Austria and Hungary, and the deep anti-Semiticmovements of the period provided them with some protec-tion.

The German occupations of the second World War,however, pushed the Order too far. During the War, thePriest of the Order tried to contact certain members withinthe Nazi patty close to Hitler with offers of assistance of amystical sort. Too many parties took interest in this turn ofevents, and mysteriously, an explosion desttoyed the Order'smeeting house. Only a few apprentices and the Priest'sacolyte managed to escape. No one is really sure exactlywhere thesorcerers went next. Various factions that watchedthe exchange and perhaps even caused the explosion toprevent the Order's involvement have searched and, so far,been unable to find any solid leads. Traces have turned up inplaces as far apart as Boston in the United States andLebanon in the Middle East.

OrganizationThe members of the Order of the Golden Fly are not

withered, bearded old scholars searching for lost knowledge.The fallen angel they believe that they have bound to theirservice does not want weak or meek servants. From its originsto its present day incarnation, members have consisted ofremarkable individuals, possessed of strong, fast forms andquick, tactical minds. Policemen and soldiers with the raresleepless energy to invest in strange extracurricular studies ofesoteric power are the preferred recruits. Over the years,though, not a few bouncers and even dedicated serial killershave been accepted into the Order. A new apprentice learnsthe arts of hatred, fear and death.

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 37

Members of the Order gain authority through theirmastery of their angelic patron's powers, A novice recruitmay suffer tortures and humiliations at the hands of hissuperiors — this is to be expected. The strong-willed andhardy survive and, in turn, become ruthless killers capable ofchanneling the power of an angel of slaughter.

StyleRituals and spells used by the sorcerers of theOrder have

come to depend more upon the power of their fallen angelthan they did at the outset of the original mystics' plans.Over time, their patron has taught more and more of what itwanted them to know and less of the secrets of things likebinding and command. The angel does not want them everco discover that it is not really under their control.

PathsApprentices to the Order learn Binding spells that appear

to command the service of the angel, but these are ineffective.It merely masquerades as performing their wishes. (Sorcererslearning the Path of Binding from the Order may learn it for amere 2 experience times new rating.) Really, all that their Pathis capable of doing, though, is sending out a mystical call to theirangel, which it may or may not choose to answer. During any useof the Path, the Storyteller should roll all of the player's Bindingrolls in secret. If the player succeeds, the Path's power hascontacted the angel, but the angel still may choose not toappear. All the Path can do is contact it. All of the sorcerer'sother Paths are limited by their knowledge of the Path ofBinding, because in learning the Path, Golden Fly sorcerers aredeluded. They believe that it is their mastery of the angel thatpermits them to force it to teach them everything else. OtherPadis include multiple forms of the Paths useful in warfare,destruction and suffering.

The Silver PortalInitiationMost Awakened magicians would be surprised to dis-

cover that the raw chaos that is the hallmark of the Marauderslurks within some linear mage societies. To the rare magewho understands the basic reasons why insanity grants powerto the Mad Ones, it is inconceivable that the firm study ofthe sorcerer could render such mayhem. Thankfully, suchdisbelieving individuals are for the most part correct. Still,there are deviant orders such as the dreamers of the SilverPortal who shatter this conception.

The sorcerers of the Silver Portal are oneiromancers ofa sort, and their power rests in dreaming trances. The groupinherited eldritch techniques from an 18th-century booksupposedly translatinga 14th-century Byzantine Greek tomederived from a 5th-century Persian scroll manuscript knownas the Zolondrodere, which itself claimed an even oldersource. Study of the twisted work is intensely difficult, as ithas undergone numerous revisions and hints at secrets thatseem ridiculous to the sound mind. Reputedly, every thought

38 Sorcerer

and idea exists in a dream-state, waiting to enter realitythrough someone with the strength to breach the barriers.The magicians of the Silver Portal gaze into the primaltangle of myth, fantasy and fear, seeking wisdom.

Unfortunately, mankind has abandoned its visions, andthey have become like wild things. The Dream Realms,known as Maya, are said to be ruled by fabulous lords similarto the mightiest of the Umbrood. Dreamers of the SilverPortal return from their rapturous slumber with insights andextraordinary gifts from beyond the shining veil. All sense ofreality erodes, though, as the sorcerer encounters nightmar-ish horrors and mundane triviality juxtaposed with ancientfading gods and desperate hopes for the future. The psyche ofthe dreaming sorcerer bobs upon the ocean of humanity'sillusions until he no longer truly knows when he is waking.

OrganizationGiven the nature of the Silver Portals' magic, it is not

surprising that there are few real points of order within thegroup. Initiation occurs when someone stumbles into the wak-ing reality of magician and catches her attention as deeply as thedream world has. A new student is encouraged to read theenlightening secrets of the Zohndrodere tome and practiceobtaining the deep trance thought of the Silver Portal. Early on,this will probably require hallucinogenic drugs and self-hyp-notic sessions in front of a mirror marked with exotic symbols.Later, extended sessions of sleep deprivation and even lucidsleepwalking are likely to occur. As the unconscious mind of theinitiate gathers the power of the Dream Realms, her path mostlyreflects unseen bargains with dream-denizens called Oneira, orwith quests to bring the majestic beauty and grandiose splendorof her fantasies to life.

StyleDiligent and very deliberate strengthening of the un-

conscious connection with dreams is the linchpin of everySilver Portal sorcerer's power. Physical foci inevitably in-clude mirrors, which are regarded as symbolic of the portal todreams and scribbled chants copied from the group's onlycomplete copy of the Zolondrodere tome. Specifically avoidedare any items like alarms or clocks that might dispel anyillusions of time or cause premature emergence from atrance. Power derived from a trance session varies with thesuccess of a sorcerer's lucid control over the visions thatcome and the interference of sentient Oneira from beyondthe walls of sleep. Such power is always lost in the maelstromof imagination during normal, uncontrolled dream periods.

Storytellers and players interested in this fascinatingsorcerous society must be prepared to deal with its difficultiesand look upon them as boons. Create exciting stories revolv-ing around bargains made with Umbrood from the DreamRealms. Indulge shamelessly in confusing imagery. Abusebotched magic rolls in reality bending manners. Cast shad-ows that provoke paranoia. Stan sessions that seem to be realbut turn out to be dreams. Evoke incredible mirages of

grandeur and apparitions of unspeakable terror. Don't letanyone fall asleep at the wheel.

PathsKeep careful track of the total number of Path points

and rituals that a Silver Portal sorcerer "knows" at all times.Each time he enters a dreaming trance, have the playerchoose which Paths and rituals he would like to "spend"these points to gain. Success is measured with a pool of diceequal to Perception + Dream (if the sorcerer has thatbackground) or Hypnosis (if he uses such). Roll once foreach Path or ritual the dreamer wishes to use in the DreamRealms, with a target difficulty of 6. For Paths, each successresults in temporarily dreaming the equivalent of one levelin the Path — as the sorcerer dreams, he awakens his mysticpowers, but the slumbering mind is not always constant in itscapabilities. Any points allocated, but not gained withsuccesses, are inaccessible for that particular trip into slum-ber. Rituals are harder to obtain from the chaotic jumble ofthe Maya Realms. For each ritual, the sorcerer must garnera number of successes equal to the level of the ritual sought.Failure means that particular ritual expenditure is simplylost. The Storyteller should note a botch on any roll and takeadvantage of the source of the sorcerer's power. A Path orritual used later may malfunction in some bizarre way thatreflects the power he failed to gain, or the poor magician maysuffer from hallucinations. Dream-gained power only re-mains until next time the sorcerer sleeps normally, at whichtime it returns to the world of fantasy. Evidence of a balanceeven in dreams is evident in the fact that the Silver Porratsorcerer cannot enter another magical trance until his mindspends time in unfettered rest.

Note that aSilver Portal sorcerer's powers aren't limited todreams—rather, the sorcerer taps into the dreams to unlock hispowers and then becomes able to focus them in the wakingworld. Because the sorcerer can only draw a limited amount ofpowet from the chaotic Dream Realms, he must choose whatunconscious knowledge to bring forth each time he casts hisconsciousness into mystic slumber. When he awakes, he "re-members" these Paths and rituals and focuses his ability to usethem, until he sleeps again and the knowledge floats away againlike some unremembered dream.

The Star CouncilInitiationSightings of objects flying through the sky date back to

ancient times, but it was not until the publicized Roswell,New Mexico incident that the term UFO came into main-stream thought. The US Air Force even investigated incidentsfrom 1947 to 1969 as a potential threat to national security.Since the 1969 declaration that not one single case had beenproved, no official acknowledged program has been active.Many UFO fans note that even the Air Force could notexplain over 700 of those reports and further hint that the

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 39

government could be hiding the truth. Whatever the facts ofthe matter, it is certain that the Technocracy wishes nopublic panic over the issue, and therefore, we may neverlearn what UFOs are until they are ready for us to know.

The sudden flurry of publicity about the Roswell inci-dent created a feeding frenzy that encouraged frauds andthose hungry for attention to perpetrate hoaxes, simple andelaborate. Others were just crackpots who believed in thehype and imagined the worst. A few students of the paran-ormal took the sightings seriously but chose to study them.Their quest for knowledge seemed destined to clash withmilitary intelligence intent upon keeping whatever knowl-edge they might gain secret. In 1969, a group called the StarCouncil managed to break into a restricted hangar andretrieve some very strange devices. Even they aren't com-pletely sure what they have, but it seems as if it could be alien.The Star Council continues to find it very suspicious that thegovernment chose that particular year to announce itsofficial lack of concern and hide any public acknowledgmentofUFO study.

OrganizationThe Star Council is a small group composed of loose

cannon intellectuals, numbering less than 50. A few of themare older discredited professors of astronomy, linguistics orphysics. Others are young hackers, intent upon cracking intowhatever government mainframe possesses the Holy Grail ofknowledge they seek. Two of them are lawyers who no longethave a career left outside of defending other Council mem-bers. The Star Council has suffered from an antagonisticrelationship with the government since its formation, as onemight expect — only its small size and secretive nature,combined with the technical expertise of its younger mem-bers, prevents the group's total arrest and collapse.

During the early 60's, before members successfully en-tered the hangar, the Council was not so selective in itsrecruitment. Naively, the Council didn't fear the govern-ment or other UFO nuts. Bizarre fruitcakes with theoriesabout dead planets, lost underground alien civilizations andchariots of the gods were as welcome to attend meetings asthe most serious students. One group of attendees evenclaimed to be in contact with an immortal being of light theycalled Khuvon, and dubbed themselves the Thal'hun. Ironi-cally, the crackpot theories of the Thal'hun were so close tothe way that the devices discovered in '69 worked that theCouncil believed them. It was almost the group's undoing.

The Thal'hun managed to convince a number of StarCouncil members to participate in an expedition to a site inthe Middle East. Somehow, the expedition erupted in vio-lence, and authorities started seriously investigating theCouncil. A scared, leaner Star Council abandoned its publicoffices in San Francisco and went underground. The mem-bers know their bizarre comrades were lunatics, but they alsoknow that what they have found is still possibly the biggestsecret mankind has ever kept.

StyleThe origin of the technological artifacts the Stat Coun-

cil has hidden in a couple of abandoned warehouses isuncertain. The Council is not aware of the Technocracyand, thus, has no real way to distinguish between ultratechand alien technology. Nevertheless, the devices they dohave seem to have inhuman markings on them and exhibitproperties that defy scientific principles. The Council feelsas though they are on the verge of learning the truth. It hasbroken some of the linguistic code emitted by the devicesthrough odd beeps and buzzing. Repeating these codes tosome of the artifacts has triggered the discharge of powerfulpulses of energy, with inexplicable effects.

Disappearances reminiscent of UFO abduction storieshave plagued the Council since 1969. They have also witnessedbums without fire or radiation, flying objects moving in impos-sible ways, signals from empty space on static channels andrandom failure of radar and compasses. Three of the Councileven returned after extended periods they can't seem to remem-ber. Hypnotic sessions hint at their abductions but cannotexplain newfound psychic abilities. The Star Council is surethat either aliens or the government is using human beings forsome sort of experiments. It is desperate to decipher more of thecodes, figure out what the government knows and learn thetruth, if it isn't already too late.

PathsConveyance, Hellfire and Weathercraft are appropriate

for Star Council members with their alien technology; manyalso have various psychic abilities. Note that most StarCouncil members consider their "magic "to be alien technol-ogy and language — essentially, a sort of mysticalhyper-science.

Minor or Defunct OrdersSeveral sorcerous societies have fallen by the wayside or

been absorbed. These include, but are not limited to:

Asatru Futhark — A group of pretender-biker-Norse-wannabe sorcerers, the Asatru Futhark promoted hate crimesand random violence and rebellion, partly out of a misguidedracial superiority complex and partly due to juvenile bore-dom. After several run-ins with other magical authoritiesbent on putting its activities to rest, the Asatru Futhark metits match. A small group of Aeon Order magicians managedto utterly destroy half a dozen of the Asatru in a directconfrontation, and the group splintered. Now, the formerAsatru tend to take up nomadic criminal lifestyles, and somehave left their former ways completely behind. However, theAeon Order members involved note that some other groupwas apparently funding the Asatru — a group calling itselfthe Thule Society, a group hailing from actual ancient Norsereligion as transliterated in World War II German society.The true extent, influence and goals of the Thule Societyremain unknown.

40 SORCERER

Balamob — In Mesoamerica, a few sorcerers continuedto follow the shapechanging ways of warriors from the oldAztec Empire and its contemporaries. These bloodthirstysorcerers have since found their way to the Dreamspeakers,recruited by the other Native Americans who study theirculture. (See Dead Magic for details.)

The Dozen Priests of the Pythian Order — A smallcabal of divinatory priests, this Order found itself co-optedfor its ties to the mythical Greek Oracle. Now, the priestsserve whatever entity decided to overtake Delphi. (See alsoDead Magic.)

The Fenian — Not so much a sorcerous society as afamily, the Fenian claimed lineage to the fey and had strongmagical powers to back up their claims. In recent days, thenumber of mystical family members has dwindled. The Irishlegends maintain their geasa and pass on their secrets ofshapeshifting and kinship with spirits and faeries. Still, thefamily's heritage runs thin these days, and only a few are bornwith the natural gift.

Mogen Ha Chav — The "Shield of the 36" undertakesa search for the 36 perfect human beings whose truly goodhearts protect the world. The New York based group uses acombination of divination and protective magic to locateand protect these paragons of virtue. In concert with theLions of Zion, it functions as a small, hidden subsect ofKabbalistic practitioners. Though it is reclusive and does notoften interfere in worldly affairs (due to its highly specializednature), it likewise does not draw undue attention to itsactions or to the existence of its Lion patrons.

The Nephite Priesthood — An apocalyptic group ofMormon priest-magicians, the Nephites prepared for thecoining millennium and hunted down threats to its religiouscommunity. On January 4, 2000, something happened as theNephites met in Salt Lake City. Stories are contradictory,

but rumor holds that one Nephite survived some sort ofmassive apocalypse, carrying the knowledge of his order sothat it might again be reborn someday. Others argue that themilitant Nephites obviously confronted something beyondtheir limited capabilities and won't be coming back any timesoon.

The Seven Thunders — At the dawn of the 16thcentury, a group of seven powerfully faithful sorcerers ram-paged across the European countryside, destroying anyheretical or magical enemies they came across. They struckfear into the hearts of unbelievers and carried out a crusadewith powers both mystical and Heavenly. In 1992, theirtestament was rediscovered, and new Thunders took up theirmantle, to purge the world of evil before the prophesiedapocalypse at the turn of the millennium. When the fore-casted disaster failed to materialize, many of the Thunders'followers went their separate ways. Now the Thunders havecome to realize that perhaps they are not the prophesiedmessengers for the new age, that some otherwise normalhumans have been touched by strange Messengers to per-form their duties. At this time, the Seven Thunders remainalive and active, but how long they will continue theirmodern crusade is a matter of some speculation.

Thal'hun -- Believers in UFOs and vibratorysupertechnology, the Thal'hun wete subsumed into thegroup calling itself the Star Council (see p. 39).

Uzoma — The keepers of African mysticism have beenactively sought out by their brothers the Ngoma, who hadlong ago joined the Traditions. After settling some initialdifferences, most Uzoma have seen the benefits of workingunder a worldwide aegis that provides them with knowledgeand tesources to promote their practices. Conversely, theUzoma do not have a distinct identity any more but remainsorcerers attached to the Traditions.

Creating New OrdersStorytellers and players should by no meansfeel constrained to the example orders in thisbook, of course. The World of Darkness hasseen many sorcerous cabals rise and fall. Takean idea that has some mystical weight to it,and build a society about it. How might sorcer-ers take a specific cause or belief and use it toempower themselves? What magic hasn't been

explored by other societies? What cultural practices lendthemselves to mysticism? Fot inspiration, try your own takeon any society or group from a novel or film that you enjoy— odds are you can find a way to make it a sorcerous society.Not all groups need to be "wizards in robes," either; cabalscan be religious, secular, political, physically oriented—anypractice that captures human imagination can also extendbeyond the mundane.

Chapter Two: Sorcerous Societies 41

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruningby study.

- Francis Bacon

"I see you have returned, Lisa," the old manmuttered without even glancing up from the strangemachinery over which his fingers played. "I know Ihave been hard on you, but it is because you arespecial. Have you figured out yet why it is so hard topronounce the words I keep trying to teach you?"

Lisa paused, surprised at the immediate question, but happynonetheless that her some what erratic friend greeted her so after herabrupt departure during the previous month's frustration. "Becausethey were not created by human beings?" She could not keep thetone of questioning out of her voice because even now it seemedincredible. "But why must we learn their tongue?"

"How do you suppose they arrived here? Think of it! Thesebeings have traveled the stars and now shepherd humankindtoward some unseen goal, [f we can but decipher their meaningand their sciences, we shall inherit the universe, rather thanbeing enslaved by it."

A shiver crept up Lisa's spine as a picture of slimy gray fingersmanipulating the very object Dr. Carrier thrust into her hands

slipped into her thoughts. The professor's experiments suggestedthat the metal half-disc was some sort of computer. If only her voicecould crack the codes of the heavens. "What if they just use telepathyor something and only have to speak to their machines? Maybe thatwould explain why no one has ever heard one talk." Suddenly,imitating the sounds the crescent disc occasionally emitted seemedfar more important than ever.

The Quest BeginsSorcerers in the World of Darkness practice magic, but they

view it differently than those popularly called mages by rhe Tradi-tions. For centuries, they have been called "hedge" or "static" mages,but with the close of rhe Ascension War, the weakened Traditionshave been forced to realize the equality of their magical brethren. Intruth, all mages and sorcerers practice magics that are static, dynamicand entropic. What separates them is the path to power. Thesorcerer may practice shamanism, technological advancement,hermetic theory or even the martial arts, but her study proceedsalong very linear paths.

It is extremely important to realize that these are individualswho know that they are every bit the equal of their more dynamicpartners. Practitioners of linear magic spend long years advancing

Chapter Three: Character Creation 43

their knowledge of powerful paths and arc confident in their potentabilities. The wisest sorcerers may realize that they are limited toperforming permutations of magical feats pioneered by others inancient times, but they also know that there are ages of power to tap.A lifetime spent digging deep into the universe's secrets can provemore fruitful than stumbling around looking for some new way. It hasbeen said that everything has been thought of before, and at leastamongst religious sorcerers, this is considered a divine truism.

The first thing that you should do is to decide what made yourcharacter step onto the path of sorcery. Some vision, experience,discovery or fanatical desire sparked the impulse to search for themysteries of creation and formed the incredible will necessary tocarry on that search. From this initial concept, every single aspect ofyour adopted persona will flow naturally, and you will find it easy tofollow him down the mystical path.

A sorcerer character is built according to MageRevised character creation rules, except that sheusually has fewer points and somewhat differentskills. This chapter begins with the basics of how todesign your sorcerer and expands to provide her withnew options that will help you define her magicalgift and her place in the chronicle.

The basic steps of character creation arevery similar to those from Mage Revised. For anoverview of the whole procedure and abundant

advice for both Storyteller and players, see pp. 86-94 of the Magerulebook. The chart above provides a quick reference, includingchanges to reflect sorcerers different points and costs.

Step One:Character Concept

ConceptYou did decide upon some sort of starting concept, right? What

was your character before she became a sorcerer? What made herstep onto the Path? A great deal of who we are is reflected in whatwe do, and a strong initial concept will help you make many otherdecisions while designing your character. Think of the details thatyou can guess just by knowing someone is a police officer or a dentist.Well, perhaps the individual will not fit your picture exactly, butmany generalizations will prove true.

Society

Linear mages owe more of their knowledge of the meta-physical to their mentors and associates than most affinitivemages. There are always exceptions, but a sorcerer will mostoften continue to belong to the assembly of fellow students andmaster(s) who originally instructed her in the Art. Examine thesorcerous societies in Chapter Four and choose one that fits yourideas for your character. You should make sure that any choiceyou make fits into the chronicle with the rest of the players andwith the Storyteller's vision. Autonomous magicians still pos-sess an origin, from those who have decided to leave the mysticalorganization that spawned their learning to the rare self taughtwizard struggling through lost tomes or the nervous recipient ofalien "visitations." Despite Nephandic claims to the contrary,nobody comes from a complete vacuum.

It is very important to remember that the stereotypical imagesof a typical member of a society are exactly that — stereotypes.Your character is a person first, not some faceless entity known to

the world as a Cultist of Isis or an Order of Aeon Rites member. Infact, most people that your character knows probably aren't evenaware of her sorcerous affiliations. To them she is Chris or Tamikaor Dr. Smith. Magical teachings do come from a source, however,and thar source colors the sorcerer with its own prejudices, beliefsand thoughts about the universe. She is still a sum greater than allthose parts, and ultimately, hers is the choice of what to adopt andwhat to discard. Of course, to close-minded individuals, bound upin their own vision of how the world works, she may be seen asexactly the stereotype. A government agent stumbling across theStar Council is certainly likely to see them as a bunch of crackpotUFO conspiracy theorists.

Nature, Demeanor and EssenceChoose your personality archetypes as stated in the Mage

rulebook. (You may wish to peruse the additional choicesincluded here.) You should choose an Essence fitting to yourconcept and society, as well, but be aware that the influence ofthe Avatar is far subtler within the linear mage. If the sorcererever comes to understand this influence consciously, he willlikely experience it mostly as a force guiding him along certainpaths of development.

Step Two:Select Attributes

The inherent qualities and personal characteristics of yoursorcerer character are determined in the same fashion as detailed onp. 89 of Mage Revised. Unless your Storyteller is allowing the Equalfor All option noted previously, your sorcerer begins with fewerpoints than a normal mage. You must prioritize Physical, Social andMental and spend 6 dots on your highest priority, 4 on yoursecondary and 3 on your tertiary Attributes.

Step Three: Select AbilitiesNext, as normal in the creation of a Mage character, you

need to assign the Abilities that represent your sorcerer'slearning, practice and academia. Again, the sorcerer does notreceive as many points, unless your Storyteller chooses theEqual for All option. Prioritize Talents, Skills and Knowledges,spending 11 dots toward the primary, 7 upon the secondary and4 to raise the tertiary categories. Remember that no Ability maybe higher than 3 at this stage. You will have the opportunity tospend freebie points later. New Abilities designed to representsome of the rare secrets or arts of linear mages are listed later in

44 SORCERER

Shaping Sorcerers

this chapter. One of the important changes is that the corebookof Mage Revised does not contain any Abilities that areunsuitable for sorcerers. This should help you close any artificialgap between the two types of practitioners.

Step Four:Select Advantages

Just tike other mages, sorcerers have their own ties tomortal society. In die case of a sorcerer, such ties may even bestronger—often, die sorcerer does not have the all-consumingdrive of a pushy Avatar or an overwhelming Tradition and,thus, pays greater attention to worldly details. Conversely,many sorcerers have rather weak magical affinities; they justdon't "stumble into" the bizarre situations that many magesencounter. This doesn't mean that sorcerers are without mysticallies and trinkets, just that such toys tend to be hard to comeby! Prioritize your advantages according to the way that you seeyour sorcerer's interplay with magical and mundane society. Ifyour Ancient Order of Aeon Rites sorcerer also happens to bean upstanding city councilman, you'll want to pay attention tothat with Influence and Resources. A sorcerer who makes a

Equal for AllOne of the themes inherent in Sorcerer Revised is

that all magicians are special and that most individuals,supernatural or otherwise, cannot tell the difference be-tween a "sorcerer" and a "mage." Nevertheless, efforts havebeen made to keep from stealing the thunder from ourAwakened protagonists. Some Storytellers may wish torun chronicles in which sorcerers play alongside mages orjust want to further emphasize the fact that linear magesare not some inferior, lesser cousin to affinitive mages. Trycreating some Storyteller character mages with Attribute,Ability, Background and freebie points using Sorcerer.Revised starting allocations instead of the normal Magelevels. Or you may wish to have some or all sorcerercharacters constructed using Mage Revised build values of7/5/3 to determine Attributes, 13/9/5 for Abilities, 7Background points, 6 Numina and 15 freebies. With aneven playing field to start, the artificial differences be-tween sorcerers and mages dissolve and the real differencescan stand out on their own merit.

Chapter Three: Character Creation 45

TraitAttributeAbilityPathRitualBackground

Willpower

Cost5 per dot2 per dot7 per dot3 each1 per dot1 per dot

TraitNew AbilityNew PathWillpowerAbilityAttributePathNew ritualBackground

Cost37new ratingnew rating x2new rating x4new rating x7rat ing of ritualnew rating x3

Experience PointsFreebie Points

Character Creation ProcessStep One: Character ConceptChoose concept, society, Nature, Demeanor and EssenceStep Two: Select AttributesPrioritize the three categories: (6/4/3). Begin with one dot in each Attribute and assign points to your Physical, Social:

and Mental Traits.Step Three: Select AbilitiesPrioritize the three categories; (11/7/4). Choose Talents, Skills and Knowledges. No Ability greater than 3 at this stage.Step Four: Select AdvantagesChoose Backgrounds (5 points).Choose Numina (5) (Paths, rituals, psychic powers, foci).Step Five: Finishing TouchesRecord Willpower (5) and Mana Pool (equal to Mana Background).Select a Resonance Trait (Dynamic, Entropk or Static).Spend freebie points (21).Choose Specializations.

Ignite the Spark of Life.

hobby of tracking mystical artifacts may well have a usefulWonder or two.

Choose BackgroundsSorcerer characters receive five points of Backgrounds.

However, not all of the Traits included in the Mage Revisedrulebook are suitable. The common Backgrounds available toall sorcerer characters are Allies, Contacts, Influence, Library,Mentor and Resources. A sorcerer may even begin play withsome sort of Wonder, if the Storyteller approves a relic, device,talisman or fetish as being suitable for her style. Arcane, Destinyand Dream are sometimes suitable for the occasional sorcererbut bear careful consideration by the Storyteller as to whetherthey fit the role of linear mages in her chronicle. The NodeBackground requires special mention. Unless the style of themagician strongly encourages ideas of a place of power or thechronicle contains a mixture of mages and sorcerers, Storytell-ers should not allow this option. All mortals, of course, possessan Avatar, but the linear mage guides his down a set road and,therefore, does not possess a rating in the background. Newoptions for Backgrounds intended to help detail your character'sspecial advantages are included later in this chapter.

If you use some supplemental material like The BitterRoad or Guide to the Traditions, the additional Backgroundsin those books may be useful as well — Rank, Fame and evenCult might all be appropriate.

Choose NuminaAll of the basic decisions you already made in designing

your sorcerer character should have you well on the way todesigning his magic. In the worid of Mage, we know that allpowers beyond those of normal humans are forms of magic. Ourmagicians do not see this overarching unity so clearly, andtherefore, their beliefs and styles limit them inhow and why thispower manifests. In the World of Darkness, the cultist, Rever-end, spoon-bender, mad scientist and telepath see their abilitiesas entirely different and probably consider them unrelated oreven deny the existence of other powers. Seemingly endlesstraditions, unnumbered rituals, holy miracles, spells, incredibledevices and fantastical physical feats form a body of lore thateven White Wolf will never fully tap. For convenience's sake,we call supernatural abilities possessed by otherwise normalhuman beings Numina, from numen, or "divine nod." TheStoryteller system reflects the common roots that these spiritualarts share with a system of rules that, for the most part, achievesthe unity that defies the character behind them.

The expenditure of Numina points depends totally uponthe style of the sorcerer's powers. All styles fall into categoriza-tion as mythic, technocratic or psychic,and though this divisionis arbitrary ina metaphysical sense, it does reflect the basic rulesdifferences and differences in paradigm. Each style controls thetype of Numina that are available and the foci necessary in orderto use them. Unless the Equal for All options are used, acharacter has five Numina points to spend. It is perhaps worthnoting that the linear mage is NOT limited to spending onlythree points in a single Path. Reaching the heights of power in

a narrower field is one of the advantages of the sorcerer. (Ofcourse, the Storyteller may well veto a character who seems tobe nothing more than a bunch of dots geared toward,say, Hellfire.)

Mythic Numina

If her style is mystical in nature, distribute five points for thesorcerer within Paths listed from the society that you chose for her.Then choose one ritual per level of each Path from those listed inChapter Four. This does not mean that you have to take a ritual ateach level of your Path rating, though you cannot take a ritual of anyspecific level unless you have at least one of each lower level. Thus,if you have a Level Three rating in the Path of Alchemy, you couldtake a Level One, a Level Two and a Level Three ritual, or threeLevel One rituals, or single Level One and two Level Two rituals.Unless you spend freebie points to gain more, this results in five totallevels of Paths and five rituals.

With your Storyteller's permission and assuming the new Pathsfit the character, you may even spend freebies to obtain Paths andrituals outside of her society's basic list. Perhaps your magician hasstudied with other orders or comes from a different cultural back-ground than is typical for her group. The important thing toremember is that all Paths and rituals chosen should be mythic instyle and that they should make sense for the story behind the originof your character. The majority of sorcerers fell into the mythic style,either through their affiliation with a Tradition or because theyretain the practices of ancient societies.

Next, choose a signature focus for each Path. Any time thesorcerer uses this specialty tool or keystone, she gains a one-pointbreak on the difficulty. As per normal Mage rules, the magician maychoose some unique focus for her signature toot and thereby receivea two-point break on casting difficulties—penalized by the normalloss should she find herself without access to it. Other possible focifor standard use in magical invocation are listed under the society'ssection on style. Sorcerers of a mystical bent caught without anyfocus at all may still seek to cast their magic, surpassing the temporaryneed for a focus, but it is immensely difficult. In addition to requiringa point of Willpower and imposing a penalty of three to the magicalfeat roll, the power enacted must be similar to a previous usage. Huraicould light a candle, even bound and gagged, as he has performedthat particular trick many times in the past. The Path, once wovendistinctly into the Tapestry, serves to empower the mystic to tugupon the universe's memory of the act. Sorcerers cannot abandonfoci entirely unless they someday lay aside the linear path for anaffinitive Awakening.

Technocratic Numina

Technocratic sorcerers practice a scientific style of magic. Ofcourse, they see their miraculous achievements as merely the logicalextensions of scientific theorem, but the effect is essentially thesame. They receive the standard five points of Paths and five rituals,but these powers predicate upon scientific principles and laws.Because their Arts fall into the realm of possibility, scientific-basedmagicians are less likely to face persecutionor absolute disbelief frombystanders. The flip side to this is that their ways are newer and havebeen accepted in reality for a far shorter time, and thus there are fewerestablished Paths. Chapter Four provides a number of examples of

technocratic Paths, but you can always adjust other Paths rhemati-cally if you can agree with the Storyteller how to explain their logicalsuper-scientific theory.

Choose a specialty focus for each Path, for which you receivethe standard one-point break, and note the standard foci listed underyour society's style. Whether due to some remarkable personalinvention or a theorem yet unaccepted by the scholarly communityat large, a technocratic willworker may choose some unique focus fortheir alterations of reality. As usual, this results in the two-pointbreak on Path difficulty rolls, penalized by a three-point penalty plusnecessary Willpower expenditure should he lose it. Scientificwillworkers cannot perform miracles without their tools, though,and, thus, can never surpass or abandon foci. Due to the ubiquitousnature of technology in the modem world, technocratic sorcerers donot often find themselvesdeprived of all foci. When doomed by fate,stranded without tools, the technocratic sorcerer is at the mercy ofhis raw wits, skills and physique. Some schools of technocraticthought prepare for this possibility by seeking to redesign thesorcerer's mind and body.

Psychic NuminaTo the psychic practitioner, powerful feats occur solely by the

extension of the might of the mind over the reality of the body and

the physical universe. In one sense, they have earned the ultimaterespect of many mages, for nothing but will is required to change theworld around them. Dedication to the purity of the mind, unfortu-nately, has cost the psychic the ability to draw upon the inherentpower of outside foci and their resonance. To represent this, thepsychic practitioner does not have access to rituals. Chapter Fivegoes into more detail about the psychic and her powers.

While the psychic individual cannot engage in rituals inthe traditional sense, he can work together with other coopera-tive psychics. Parapsychology studies allow multiple minds towork together to achieve a more powerful effect. Each psychiccapable of the power in question and working in conjunctionmay assist and thereby contribute a die pool as if he weresplitting actions between a skill roll of Perception + Parapsy-chology and a psychic power roll of Path Rating + Attribute, i.e.since the two skills are wrapped together, use the lesser die poolless two dice. As an example, two psychics are trying to warp themind of a target, working together. Dr. Dunglas has four dots ofPerception and one of Parapsychology, with three dots ofPsychic Hypnosis and three dots of Manipulation. He may rollfive dice as the leader of a conjunctional effort. His partner, Dr.James, possesses two dots of Perception and two of

Chapter Three: Character Creation 47

Models of the CosmosEvery model of the universe finds reflections in the nature of the magical societies who inhabit it. The static, dynamic

and entropic triangle finds respectively the Technocracy, Marauders and Nephandi embodying its extreme points withthe Traditions theoretically walking down the middle. Another division of reality often described by mages is that of body,spirit and mind. The extremes of the Traditions' enemies are nonexistent or at least muted among sorcerers, if only dueto the nature of linear magic. Nonetheless, there is a certain obvious correlation between the basic types of sorcerers andthe segments of the cosmos. Three basic styles of willworking dominate amongst sorcerers and their Numina.

Scientific or technocratic Numina revolve almost entirely around the physical realms and thus easily reside in theprovince of body. From astronomy to zoology, the technological logic seeks to redefine all of creation widiin the scopeof its own reason. The power to alter reality in the material universe is potent in the modem era, but it foolishly ignoresthe wisdom of the ages and suffers from a lack of spirituality diat invites moral decrepitude. It is common for a scientistto see experimentation as the greater good and to accept other evils in the name of science — "we don't drop the bombs,we just build them," as the saying goes.

Numina Paths of mystical might derive from long-honored rituals tliat allow the diligent and faithful to draw uponthe power of millennia of philosophical and divine thought. The brief explosion of the present is not yet enough to shatterthe historical inertia of thousands of years of mythic tradition. The tapestry of ancient myth is an ocean still waiting withinthe spirit of everything for its deepest secrets to come forth. Unfortunately, the traditional sorcerer resides largely in thepast, and every day leaves her a bit more lost to abandoned ideology and forgotten practices.

Mind is not remotely a surprise as the province of the psychic practitioner. He likely beats you half to death withcontinuous reminders that it is all that matters, the mind overcomes all other concerns, whether body or spirit. Purity ofpurpose lends the psychic a strength that is difficult to steal, A sorcerer who has mastered her own mental abilities to thepoint that she can control the world around her can almost never be deprived of her power. Short of insanity, drugs or someother loss of control, she will always be sharp and ready to act. Unfortunately, absolute dedication to one's own mindencourages hubris. Specifically, it denies access to the immense power diat resides in mythic resonance, confusesspirituality with personal achievement and creates an adversarial relationship between the material world and the ego.

Perhaps your sorcerer wilt transcend the limitations that arise naturally out of his style, but it is important to keep themin mind. Whether you allow your character to fall prey to his own Arts or excel at guiding him to rise above them, theywill play a strong role. The roles of body, mind and spirit are so basic and pervasive that you may even discover they areeasier to see and incorporate than the principles of stasis, dynamism and entropy. Perhaps you can finally recognize thatthe linear path is more readily seen, followed and mastered.

Parapsychology, with three dots of Psychic Hypnosis and two ofManipulation and, therefore, may add but two dice to theconjunctional effect. Between the two of them, they may rollseven dice to alter the mind of their victim.

The only focus that a psychic practitioner uses is his ownmind's concentration. Concentration requires a full combatturn during which the psychic may do nothing else, and thus,the psychic power roll and effect will occur on the followingturn. If a psychic chooses to do anything else while trying toenact mental powers, he must split actions between a Wits +Parapsychology roll and whatever other action she wants toachieve. At least one success, and possibly more if the Story-teller feels it is fair, is required on the Wits + Parapsychology rollto successfully maintain concentration.

In some situations, a psychic may wish to try to "fast-cast" somemental power in a real hurry, forbidding her the time necessary toconcentrate properly. If she invokes a mental discipline without anytime for concentration, the psychic must expend a Willpower pointand accept a penalty of three to the target difficulty number, as sheis essentially surpassing her focus. Psychics can never completelyabandon the focus of concentration.

Step Five: Finishing TouchesWillpower

Sorcerers require the same headstrong and willful nature foundin mages in order to persevere through the trials and nuances ofmagical initiation and training. Your sorcerer may find herselfrequiring a mighty will even more often than her affinitive magefellows as she cannot simply rap into reality's underlying power. Allsorcerers start with a Willpower of at least five dots, bolstered byfreebie paints if you wish to spend them thus.

Mana, Quintessence and ParadoxLinear mages do not make a habit of slashing the tapestry

into bits or creating new laws of reality from raw power. Drawingtheir mastery of the world from its own secret nature, they cancoax it into cooperation without suffering the resoundingbacklash wrought by shattering its subtle surface. Therefore,they do not suffer from Paradox in the same way as theiraffinitive friends. This is not to say that a botched spell or ritualcannot cause a sorcerer dangerous problems, but overall, thesofter footsteps she takes upon the face of the earth promise herendeavors a somewhat smoother course.

Sorcerers do not foster the wellspring of creation withintheir Avatars strongly enough to drink directly of its unadulter-ated energies. Thus, they do not receive Quintessence either.Some magicians, psychics and martial artists learn to absorbsome bit of the soul of the universe, thought of as Mana or a sortof mystical breath or spiritual energy rather than the purecreative energy of reality. Those with the Mana Backgroundbegin with a pool of points equal to the Trait rating. Withoutsome gift upon which to draw, it is difficult and unlikely for thelinear mage to gain any sort of power outside of her own skills.

Combining and Converting NuminaTypically, an extraordinary mortal has only one

sort of Numina — mythic sorcery, True Faith, excep-tional science, psychic powers, etc. However, in veryrare cases, someone might have multiple talents. Torepresent this, the cost of any disparate talent afterthe primary one is doubled. For instance, if a playerwants to build a character with both psychic phe-nomena and mythic sorcery, she can do so by spendingtwo Numina dots for each dot of powers in thesecondary aptitude. Say the character is naturallypsychic; the player would spend five Numina dots butcould swap two of those dots for a single dot of mythicsorcery, leaving the remaining three for psychic phe-nomena. Similarly, additional dots purchased withfreebies have double cost as well. This applies to allmodes beyond the primary. Thus, a character mightprimarily study extraordinary science but also havesome skill with technomancy (a pseudo-mystical dis-cipline) and psychic phenomena; the latter two wouldcome at double cost. Or the character could haveTrue Faith but at a cost of 14 points for the Meritinstead of the usual 7. (This does not indicate thatNumina dots can be used to purchase True Faith,simply that True Faith's normal cost is doubled if it'sa secondary area of power.)

Once a character is created, all experience costsare normal. Thus, a character with both psychicphenomena and mythic sorcery can advance bothareas at the normal rate, though of course he hasfewer powers to start with and will have to split hisexperience between the two separate areas.

Alternately, you may choose to pick some psy-chic power and use it as a Path of sorcery, or vice-versa.

or instance, you could use psychic Telepathy, butstate that your magician uses spells and rituals tocommunicate mind-to-mind. Or you could have apsychic who's capable of altering the weather withconcentration. Ultimately, such conversions relyupon the discretion of the Storyteller, Asa good ruleof thumb, such a power should have a strong storyreason behind it (a sorcerous society that has a strongmental discipline might teach magical Mind Shield-ing) and should have some ready correlation. Psychicpowers can easily become sorcerous Paths; most ofthe powers are instant effects, accessible with a shortspell. Conversely, the instant effects of a sorcerousPath can form the core of a psychic discipline; therituals would remain out of reach of psychic power —the price of a power that springs up from insidewithout the aid of focusing tools and aids.

Select a Resonance Trait

A sound exists that causes every object to resound with a likevibration and an article exists for reflecting every emanation of sonicenergy. Magic is no different and, in fact, may be even moreinterconnected. Any effort to change the universe works equallywithin the one who acts, for the magician is the ultimate mirrorwarping the vision of reality like a funhouse reflection. It may bedifficult to see the entire path upon which your sorcerer will embark,as any decision is heavily marked by specific delineated Paths. Thus,initially you should only choose one Resonance trait, whetherdynamic, static or entropic. Assign one dot to it and a descriptiveterm or specialty. Try to remember that often the resonance of alinear mage is tied into the very structured way in which they learnedto perform magic. As your magical knowledge continues to developalong different lines, you and your Storyteller should come to anyagreements about additional resonance traits or gain in level ofresonance rating.

Though sorcerers do not make Arete rolls, because theirmagic depends upon Path rolls instead, Resonance still has aneffect upon everything they do. Color a magician's Paths withhis Resonance. As an example, a sorcerer with the DynamicResonance of Fiery would tend to do his magic in flickeringwaves of flame and probably uses a focus that involves fire.Perhaps he meditates upon a candle or his spells always cause awash of heat. Even a psychic could have such a resonance; histelepathic powers make people feel hot or cause objects manipu-lated to become warm.

The final hard-and-fast rules step is spending the pool offreebie points that lets you really go to town modeling yoursorcerer to fit your image of her. Unless your Storyteller is usingthe Equal for All option, you receive 21 freebie points to spendaccording to the chart found in the condensed CharacterCreation chart. Try to fill in places you missed. Is there a skillyour character really should have or have at a higher rating?Have you given her Background points to cover your vision ofher history?

If your Storyteller allows Merits and Raws, this would also bethe time to choose them. Some new Merits and Flaws, especially forsorcerers, appear later in this chapter, but it is worth considering howthose already presented by the basic rules might apply. All of thenormal Physical and Social Merits and Haws easily transfer fromaffinitive mage to linear sorcerer with no noticeable changes. In factmany of them could even be found amongst mortals or thus far un-Awakened acolytes. It is worth noting that the Primal Marks Flawmight be suitable for Maison Liban sorcerers whose genetic traitsstrike a sense of reminiscence within Tremere vampires. MostMental Merits and Raws can be used without change, including theTime Sense Merit. Those affecting sleep would cause seriousproblems for sorcerers such as the oneiromancers from the SilverPortal. Due to the difference in magic rules, the Sleepwalker Flaw isnor suitable for linear mages. Supernatural Merits and Flaws thataffect the Avatar or Spheres of a mage obviously are not appropriatefor a sorcerer. These include Circumspect Avatar, Manifest Avatar,

Chapter Three: Character Creation 49

Spend Freebie Points

Paradox and Non-MagesWe have already spent a lot of time explaining

why the power of the Awakened mage is differentfrom the structured and residual threads that givemagical strength to linear mages and other super-natural denizens of the World of Darkness. However,does this mean that Paradox never strikes at otherbeings? Well, no. As the defender of consensualreality, Paradox levies its toll on anything outside thecommon world. One could theorize that Paradoxaffects the vampire by forcing him to drink blood, thewerewolf by causing vulnerability to silver and thechangeling by making icon particularly deadly. Nev-ertheless, might there be ways that sorcerers andother supernatural creatures could directly suffer fromParadox — or at least from these scourges, whereverthey spring? Not if the Storyteller wishes to keepthings simple and avoid that particular path, but ifshe wants to explore it, here are some options:

The most common source of such a situationmight be that some Wonders enact affinitive magicaleffects and yet are useful to anyone, potentially evensleepers. If such an item has a vulgar effect, theParadox gained will channel into the user rather thanthe item. In fact, some Marauders intentionally makeitems that do just that. Paradox gained in this fashionacts as normal for Mage characters but is tempered instyle by the wondrous item used and the purpose towhich it was put. The Resonance that the item holds— often gathered from its creation and its creator —

always flavors such Paradox.Other possibilities include victims altered by

magic in such a way that their very presence is anaffront to reality. If the Storyteller does not wish touse any Paradox rules for non-mages, the easiestsolution is that the force of Paradox acts as unbeliefand returns the victim toward its "normal," uninflu-enced state. Alternatively, the force of Paradox furtherharms the target, focusing on her aberrant nature andits damaging influence. Certain Merits and Flawsmay open a linear mage to the assault of Paradox. Inaddition, other strange situations may arise that offeropportunities for Paradox to strike other beings whoare not mages. If a vampire, for example, seeks to gainsome special power from the potent blood of a mage,he may discover himself strangely influenced byuncontrolled forces released by that blood, one Para-dox point for every blood point spent, perhaps.Options like this ami those Storytellers who wish toemphasize the inscrutable face that mages present toother denizens of the World of Darkness.

Twin Souls, Shattered Avatar, Sphere Natural , Avatar Companionand Sphere Inept. The Legendary Attributes Merit, however, is avery good way to help represent some of the remarkable achieve-ments of various physical Paths. Most other Merits and Raws of asupernatural origin fit sorcerers just as easily as they do mages or, atleast, can be easily altered to fit. As always, Merits and Flaws remaina wholly optional system, but they can be useful to underscore yoursorcerer's magical heritage or to underscore a particular breakfrom convention,

For each Attribute, Ability and Path rated at four or higher,you get to assign a specialization. As per the normal Mage rules,any time you perform an action that uses the Attribute, Abilityor magical Path in a way that reflects your character's specializedtalents, any 10s are kept and another die is added to the pool. Inthe case of Path ratings, this can be very powerful, since die poolsare often higher than Arete ratings for mages. Of course, withless flexible magic, it can sometimes be harder to manipulate thesituation such that a specialization comes into play.

Ignite the Spark of LifeYou have been making decisions about your character at

every step of the way, so far. Hopefully, you have had a lot moreon your mind than just some dots on a piece of paper, but justin case, now is the time to flush out the whole picture. Look atwhat each of your traits says about your sorcerer. Breathe lifeinto him by deciding what each dot means. What does yourmagician look like? What are her hobbies? She is a human

being, right ? Don't skip this stage, please, you might not respectyourself in the morning.

Put some thought into the following questions, and trywriting them down. Who are your friends, family and associatesat your job? Or do you have any? Where do you live, in a houseor apartment or on the streets? What are your quirks, manner-isms and habits that others might remember or find annoying orattractive? Describe your own personal magical style and thetypes of foci you use. And then go back and examine thequestions in the Mage rulebook. How old are you? How was yourlife different (what made you step onto the path of magic)?What "touch of strange," or mini-Awakening, opened themystic to the possibilities of the magical world? What was yourupbringing? When did you first encounter magic? How did youjoin your magical society? How did you join your cabal? How doyou deal with the mundane world? What's your motive? Doesyour character have a sense of her future? How does yourcharacter see his mystic path? What conflicts wait in the roadof magical development?

That should be enough to get you started, but don't beafraid to write up however long a description you think youwould enjoy. Just remember that any particularly bizarre back-grounds need backup by points in Traits and, as always, aresubject to your Storyteller's permission. Don't worry, though,most Storyteller's are happy to accommodate any work you putinto your character's past, as long as it is reasonable and notridiculous. Remember, you were a somewhat normal personbefore stepping foot upon the mystic path.

New TraitsMost of what sorcerers do already fits neatly intothe capabilities of normal humans or those ofmages. There are diings that set sorcerers asidefrom the norm, however, that are not alwaysdirectly related to their magic. This sectiondetails some of those special abilities and skills.

New ABILITIESTalents

Lucid DreamingFor most people, dreams are something that happen to

them that they are lucky even to remember. From choosing thesubject matter of your dreams to altering their conditions, youhave some degree of control over what happens when you aredreaming. This talent is useful for achieving insight into one'ssubconscious and gaining incredible details for stories. Becausedreams gain special meaning and power in the Maya Realms,the talent also is useful for building status and reputationamongst the Oneira lords and dream-spirits and weaving newdreams and realities to populate the dream world. Withoutmagic that lets one explore the Dream Realms, though, you willnever know whether your dreams were merely self-restricted

50 SORCERER

hallucination or epic fantasies envied by the mightiestof Oneira,• Novice: You eat heavy foods and watch strange movies

to inspire your nightly sessions.• • Practiced: You often dream about things that

interest you.• • • Competent: The contents of your dreams are open

to change.• • • • Expert: Your dream world is a continuing project.• • • • • Master: Do you ever wake up?Possessed by: Oneiromancers, Dreamspeakers, AuthorsSpecialties: Specific Changes (such as adding one consistent

component), Somnambulation, Nightmares

SkillsHypnotismThough the true limits of this skill remain unknown to

modem science, psychics and psychiatrists continue to test itsnuances. While myths of sleeper agents and "Manchuriancandidates" are probably far-fetched bur hidden truths in theWorld of Darkness, it is up to the Storyteller to decide howuseful this skill truly proves. Careful attention should ensure

Choose Specializations

that mundane talents do not create feats that should only bepossible with magic. Hypnotism can place a subject into atrance, which lets the practitioner gather information or treatpsychological problems. To put a subject into a trance staterequires an opposed Charisma + Hypnotism roll against thetarget's Willpower. An unwilling subject may automaticallyresist simply by expending a Willpower point, so breaking astrong mind may be a very time consuming process. The numberof successes indicates how much can be learned or the extent ofpsychiatric help applied. Hypnotism used in conjunction withvarious mental Numina or Mind magics may have increasedeffects, such as programming specific actions to occur at a latertime. See also the psychic Numina of Empathic Hypnotism, inChapter Five, which allows a far wider range of effects,• Novice: People you entrance probably got road

hypnosis even without you.• • Practiced: You can learn some interesting things.• • • Competent: You feel comfortable enough to en-

gage in self-hypnosis.• • • • Expert: You can reach deep into the mind of your

subject,• » • • • Master: An entranced mind is like clay in your

hands.Possessed by: Psychiatrists, Interrogation Experts, Holistic

Healers, PsychicsSpecialties: Interrogation, Behavior Training, Regression,

Hypnotherapy

KnowledgesLore: SpecializedSome types of knowledge are very specialized and involve

many details that bear little or no reference to anything else.Thus, these secrets are extremely useful when applied to thespecific subject at hand but relatively useless in any othercontext. Knowing the inside circle of the Arcanum or the truthabout vampires could very well get you that needed researchgrant or save your life if you are faced with the subject of yourknowledge. But knowing about vampires isn't going to do asingle other thing for you. When you choose a Lore knowledge,it must be specialized, such as Vampire Lore, Arcanum Lore,Technocracy Lore,• Student: You know many of the basics.• • College: You are starting to understand some of the

secrets,• • • Masters: You are well versed in your subject of

Lore.• • • • Doctorare: You know as much as most of your

subjects,• • • • • Scholar: You know your subjects better than they

know themselves.Possessed by: Occultists, Anthropologists, Witch-hunters,

KooksSpecialties: Tradition Lore. Mummy Lore, Shapeshifter

Lore, Faerie Lore

ParapsychologySerious study in the field of parapsychology dates to the 1882

founding of the Society of Psychical Research in England Suchknowledge continues to be regarded with suspicion by the scientificcommunity at large, but a few of its ideas, such as hypnotism haveeven managed to enter mainstream medicine, Basic experimentsand theory concern one of two phenomenon: extrasensory percep-tion or psychokinesis. For the theoretical student, parapsychologyinvolves die search for evidence of the nature of psi phenomena,including non-sensory detection, influence of random events, afterdeadi existence and out-of-body experiences. All too often, suchstudies are frustratingly inconclusive. For the real psychic, however,Parapsychology teaches one how to use his own powers.

You should use Parapsychology rolls for psychic powers tomaintain concentration, perform group effects and delve intothe possibilities of what can theoretically be done with psychicenergy. Maintaining concentration will sometimes require aWits + Parapsychology roll. Working in conjunction with agroup usually demands a Perception + Parapsychology roll. Useof Parapsychology with Paths is as indicated under the specificpower in question.• Student: This stuff is interesting, isn't it?• • College: You have spent time observing experi-

ments in the field, or you have read many seriousworks on the subject.

• • • Masters: You could even make a living by teachingor doing research.

• • • • Doctorate: You engage in groundbreaking work suchas that which created hypnotism.

• •••• Scholar: If you aren't already a psychic, you aregetting close.

Possessed by: Parapsychologists, Psychics, CharlatansSpecialties: ESP, Psychokinesis, Trances, Conjunctions

New BackgroundsPeople don't actually start as blank sheets of paper, and

neither do sorcerers. The friends and acquaintances a magicianmakes may serve to help her find out information or get out ofdanger, but they say a lot more about her character. Keeping ajob and, thus, an income may not always seem glamorous, butit helps pay the bills and keep food on the table. Nearly everysorcerer belongs to the normal society in which he resides asfirmly as he belongs to his magical society. Still, the very natureof sorcery is intent upon gaining other advantages over thesurrounding world. The crafty magician will usually gathermystical books, exotic materials, a safe place to work her ritualsand even a reputation amongst other practitioners. The Back-grounds detailed in this section represent special advantagesthat set sorcerers apart from mages and mortals alike.

CholeYou are a medium in the voodoo sense, originally known

amongst the Bata'a and other similar practitioners as chole orGodflowers. That is, your body and mind are open gateways to

Chapter Three: Character Creation 51

the spirit world. Ghosts, nature spirits and the mighty loa rideyou like a fine horse. Today called Les Chevaux, literally TheHorses, amongst the Bata'a and other voodoo practitioners,sorcerers and mages with a strong connection to the spirit worldare suitably respected. The sacrifice intrinsic to acting as theopen door between the realms is a sacred duty and gamersimmense attention from otherworldly powers and deep honoramong spiritual cultures. The power you represent is demon-strated in the ease with which spirits may possess you andchannel their magical charms through you into the materialworld. The higher your rating in this Background, the moreeasily spirits can use you, for good or ill. This is the ultimatesacrifice, however, and at least some of the loa will trulyappreciate and reward you. It is worth noting that this Back-ground can even exist amongst otherwise normal mortals. Thewill of the other wortd is not limited to the enlightened alone.

X The only voices you hear can be cured with psychi-atric help.

• Weak — you are the equivalent of a lame nag; -1 tospirit difficulties through you.

• • Medium — you have practice, and spirits appreciatethis; -2 to difficulties of possession and charms.

••• Strong — spirits favor a link such as you; -3 todifficulties to affect the world through you.

• • • • Powerful—the loa enjoy the gateway you provide; -4 todifficulties to enact spirit powers.

• • • • • Legendary — even the unbelievers see the divine inyou; -5 to target numbers for spirits.

GuideA mystical animal or minor spirit has chosen to help the

sorcerer along her magical Path. Generally such entities are veryinterested in the welfare (or at least foibles) of humans but have somemotive to attempt to encourage certain types of behavior in theirsorcerer companions. Crafty, knowledgeable in magical concernsand possessed of inhuman senses, these beings have a lot to offer theirpatrons. Nothing is free, though, and this relationship is a two-waystreet. Guides expect special treatment, including food, shelter,friendship and even strange supernatural necessities. In return,guides can help a sorcerer learn mythic tore, gain new Paths ordiscover unseen things. Take the opportunity to create an interest-ing, unique creature who has reason to share your sorcerer's fate andinfluence her behavior.

X Get a pet.• Weak guide — a taIking, relatively non-combative

animal with a few occult skills.

• • Minor guide—exceptionally bright small animal or spiritwith detailed occult knowledge.

••• Apt guide — a large, intelligent animal or a smallersupernatural creature.

•••• Strong guide — an animal or spirit with a fewmagica! abilities of its own.

••••• Powerful guide — a creature with magical talents,vast knowledge and probably a reputation.

52 SORCERER

ManaWhether they call it chi, essence, ki, pneuma, psychic

energy, ionized electrolytes ot any number of other traditionalnames, sorcerers can tap into sources of energy that empowerthem in their performance of magic. Meditating or resting on leylines, in holy places or even in supercharged chemical bathsgrants the magician who understands their nature a source ofpower. Other sorcerers ingest a diet of rare substances believedto invoke potency or engage themselves in strenuous rituals,exhausting daily regimens of practice or hypnotic empower-ment. Whatever the individual's methods, she exhibits anenergy that helps her work her Art, a force described by some asbeing akin to breath or spirit, or, in Latin, "Mana."

When performing Path or ritual magic, a sorcerer mayexpend Mana to lower the difficulty target number. As usual,her difficulty cannot be lowered by more than three; however,Mana may reduce threshold instead, though never below one.Recovering Mana requires the sorcerer to perform her chosenmethod of recharging and succeed in a Perception +• Meditationroll, difficulty 7, with each success restoring one point.X You have to get by on yout skill alone.• May store a pool of/expend one Mana•• May store a pool of/expend two Mana• • • May store a pool of/expend three Mana• • • • May store a pool of/expend four Mana• • • • • May store a pool of/expend five Mana

STATUSYou have recognition within your occult, religious or

super-scientific society. This may be due to anything from thecircumstances of your birth to remarkable personal achieve-ments. Note that this does not necessarily mean that you arepowerful, but you have a reputation amongst others of yourkind. This standing means associates listen to you and generallydefer — it does not automatically mean that you are well likedand, indeed, may even gain you enemies who are jealous of yourfame. The esteem you have gained may not always translate intoauthority in outside organizations either. Words of wisdomspoken by the Pope seldom move even the poorest shaman.Status may be gained in different groups with points spentseparately (i.e. Church Status, Bioengineer Status or UFOExperts) or the character may hope that the Storyteller will rulethat it applies to the situation in question. Very high levels ofStatus may gamer some small recognition among mortals, butany real temporal power must be purchased with Influence. Thesize of the sorcerer's group also defines Status within it. Highstatus for a small group may indicate virtual life and deathinfluence and medium status within a very large group may stillmean being unknown outside of your home turf.X Who do you think you are?• Close associates respect you• • You have great influence over your branch of the

society and those attached to it

• • • Others often seek your wisdom, sometimes fromfai away

• • • • Your reputation extends far and wide, potentiallyeven to other cultures

• • • • • The Dalai Lama

New Merits and FlawsUse of Merits and Flaws is by no means mandatory. In fact,

if your group is happy assuming character weaknesses androleplaying their difficulties and strengths without some magi-cal carrot on a stick, you are potentially better off without them.Liberal use of Merits and Flaws encourages goofy, weak, one-note character concepts and min-maxing munchkin twinks.On the other hand, they make extremely handy tools tocustomize your character in ways that bend the standard rulesyet keep a universal reference point for everyone playing thegame. If your Storyteller sees them as tools rather than a pain inthe ass, prove her right. Take them in small doses, and make sureyou have a strong story motive for doing so. Otherwise, you mayjust be the straw that broke the camel's back and soured her ontheir presence in the game at all. Many of the following sampleMerits and Flaws are intended to help show the special differ-ences between sorcerers and other denizens of the World ofDarkness, but read carefully, some of them may be useful inother venues as well.

Physical Merits and FlawsSterile (1-pt. Merit or Flaw)Put simply, your sorcerer cannot have children. For those

who practice Tantric rituals or require sex as a focus, but do notdesire pregnancy or unwanted children, this is a Merit. For thosewho belong to cultures, strong families or marriages that expectthem to have children, this is a Flaw.

The Flow of Ki (3-pt. Merit)Most advanced practitioners of the martial arts spend a lot

of time trying to explain that their prowess is not simply a resultof skill. Desperately, they seek to explain that their might comesfrom an understanding of the energy we all possess, the breathof the inner spirit. You understand that lesson in a way thatallows you to apply it to physical feats. You may spend Mana(chi, ki, whatever your style calls it) points to reduce thedifficulty target number of any die pool for a physical action.The difficulty number may not be reduced lower than two, normay you reduce it by more than three. Obviously, you mustalready have the Mana to spend or this Merit is useless.

Social Merits and FlawsFaction Favorite (2-pt. Merit)Awakened mages may be the visionaries who help the

Traditions and Conventions build the future, but it is the linearmages who provide the bedrock foundation upon which newrecruits, cultural identity, stable Chantries and hopes for thefuture are actually built. Whether due to a special distinction forconserving the past glories of a Tradition or a solid reputation

Chapter Three: Character Creation 53

as one of the backbones of organizational power, you commandrespect in your Tradition or Convention. This is importantbecause the worldwide influences of the mighty keystone asso-ciations of magicians transcend most of the smaller societiesthat manage to survive the ages. Modify all social rolls con-nected to Tradition or Convention Status or decision-makingby two points of difficulty in your favor.

Force of Spirit (2-pt. Merit)The raw inner force of your soul grants you a certain

character that others may find irresistible. Perhaps you glowwith an inner light; maybe your beauty seems virtually divine.You may spend Mana points to reduce the difficulty targetnumber of asocial roll. No difficulty may be lower than two, andnone may be lowered by more than three. Obviously, you mustpossess Mana points to be able to spend them,

Ritual Congregation (4-pt. Merit)

Some magicians require large numbers of believers to aidthem in creating the resonance and trappings necessary toinvoke spells or rituals. Most individuals limited in such a waybecome adept at manipulating or swaying audiences into help-ing them, unwittingly or not. You have carefully cultivated agroup of at least 100 members who are at least familiar enoughwith the concepts of your magical style to serve as useful aids inthe process. Of course, most of them are expecting something inreturn, whether it be redemption, social interaction ot directmagical benefit,

Mistreated Minority (1-or-more-pt. Flaw)In many cultures, some group of people falls outside of what

is consideted normal and acceptable by the majority. Prejudiceand racial hatred are powerful forces that continue todivide andharm mankind throughout the world. You may be homosexualor of a different color of skin or even just speak a different dialect.Whatever the difference, it must be something that causes youpenalties in social interaction due to no real fault of your own.The degree of penalty, and thus the number of Flaw pointsgained, depends upon just how harmful and prevalent theprejudicial behavior of the majority is.

Storyteller's Note: Even discussing this sort of Flaw maycause unexpected arguments within your group. If you do notfeel that your group is mature enough to explore themes ofhatred motivated by race or sexual orientation, then leave themalone. If you do decide to explore it, you will probably learn a lotabout yourself and others that you never knew, but make sureeveryone goes home happy and still friends. If things get tense,take a break, get some coffee, remind each other that you are allfriends and that the reason you are together is because theseprejudices are NOT something you feel, just something youknow exists. Unfortunately, these sorts of uncomfortable ideasare often exactly what motivate real-life villains.

Mental Merits and FlawsStrength of Psyche (2-pt. Merit)Your character has trained her mind to tap into the deep

reserves of mystical energy she possesses. Flooded with increasedpower of thought or perception, her mental faculties are tempo-

rarily increased greatly, and she finds whatever task she under-takes much, easier to accomplish. Your sorcerer may channel hermystical energy into mental activities other than magic. Youmay spend Mana points to reduce the difficulty larger numberof any die pool for a mental action. The difficulty may not bereduced below 2, nor be reduced by more than three points.Depending upon the use in question, her psyche empowers herperceptive nature, grants her insight into the strange tongue orplunges toward a solution to her puzzle.

Detached (4-pt. Merit)Your psychic has the rare ability to view his psychic abilities

as separate from his physical existence and can maintain thisdistance even under adverse conditions. Wound penalties don'taffect your use of psychic powers until your character reachesIncapacitated. If he's Incapacitated, then you may spend aWillpower point to use a psychic power at half the normal dicepoo] (rounded down). This action may be performed only onceper scene, after which the character falls unconscious, so chooselast-ditch efforts carefully.

Black and White (1-pt. Flaw)The world is really a collection of shades of gray, but your

character doesn't see it that way. To you, everything is clear as blackand white. You think in terms of people being either for or againstyou, hot or cold, good or evil, easy or impossible, stupid or genius.This closed mind set can cost you dearly in missed opportunities,misunderstandings and under- or overestimation of others. In socialsituations where your judgmental nature comes to bear, which aremore often than you might think, you suffer a one-point penalty todifficulties of rolls. This Flaw is particularly suited to pair with thingslike Code of Honor and other overly focusing Merits.

Pacifist (5-pt. Flaw)

Truthfully speaking, this sort of behavior should probably notbe considered a Flaw, but as many in society view peace as weakness,it can be a disadvantage. Due to strong religious or moral convic-tions, you will not harm another being. You may defend yourselfwith warding magic or deflective effects, and may even engage inpeaceful demonstrations and resistance. However, you may notcause damage to anyone. It is important to note that this is apsychological restriction, not a supernatural one. Certainly, it ispossible for you to hurt someone accidentally, but you would neverdo it on purpose. Players taking this Flaw should be prepared to playits difficult restrictions. In most Storytelling games there is likely tobe some level of physical conflict that makes playing it seemimpossible. Nevertheless, great men from Martin Luther King toGandhi have practiced pacifism.

Supernatural Merits and FlawsPsychic Ritual (2-pt. Merit)Your psychic is a true rarity amongst the pute practitioners

of the Arts of mental magic. Some realization of the importanceof the universe has crept into his consciousness sufficiently thathe has even managed to create a ritual that allows him toperform some extended psychic effect. You need to create aritual, approved of by your Storyteller, for one of the levels of oneof your character's psychic Paths. When your character perform

54 SORCERER

this ritual, you may use the normal rules for rituals and extendedmagic rules, with minor necessary changes. Obviously, as yourpsychic does not gain Paradox, the penalty for a botch falls to theStoryteller, greatly increasing the horrific effects of the cata-strophic failure. Your roll is limited to no more dice than yourpsychic's Stamina + Parapsychology. (In this case, you may rollsimply your Stamina dice, even if you don't have the Parapsy-chology Knowledge.)

Style Sleeper (2-pt. Merit)

Magic only works one way, and your character knows it.When other people try to pull stupid tricks, your sorcerer seesthem for what they are, or at least tries. Anytime you witnessmagic that fits into your character's style, everything is fine; yoursorcerer is treated as an Awakened being. Any time she wit-nesses any magic that falls outside of her style, she counts as aSleeper. Because this specifically targets your character's en-emies white allowing you to merrily continue with your magicas normal, this disbelief in other magic is considered a Merit.There may be times it harms your character, such as whenanother mage is trying to heal her and she just thinks he cannotdo so. More often, however, her incredulity serves as a partialdefense against the Arts of others.

Twin Link (4- or 6-pt Merit)Akin to the Mage Merit Twin Souls, the psychic shares a

constant psychic bond with another person. This gives them thebenefit of the Level Two Synergy effect. Additionally, thepsychics joined by a Twin Link get +2 to their Empathy scorebut only with regards to what their twin is feeling. As a 6'pt,Merit, the members of the Twin Link can purchase the powerSynergy, in addition to other psychic powers they may have, ata cost of 7 freebie points per dot and 3 experience points per dotto raise. This Synergy power works only on the other memberof the Twin Link.

Wild Talent (4-pt. Merit to 4-pt. Flaw)Though many psychics lack formal training of their gifts,

some lack even the most basic control of their powers. These"wild" psychics tend to have powerful gifts, though the lack ofcontrol makes up for the extra power they might have. Todetermine the level of the Flaw, use the following table. Thetotal Merit or Flaw cannot exceed 4 points.+1

-1

-2

-3

-4

For every extra die the character has when usingthe power.The character must make a Willpower roll (difficulty7) to use the power.The character can only consciously use the powerdefensively. (i.e., A precognitive character canactivate her Danger Sense, or a telekinetic can usethe power to deflect attacks.)The character has no conscious control of thepower, but it works more often to the character'sbenefit that not. (A clairvoyant who has usefulclairvoyant dreams.)The character's power activates randomly (at leastonce per game session) and often at inopportune or

CHAPTER THREE: CHARACTER CREATION 55

embarrassing moments. (The channeler contacts thespirit of an ancient warrior during a fancy dinner party.)

Blood Magic (5-pt. Merit)Perhaps you learned magic from a particularly dark cult.

Maybe your spirit needs additional energy, beyond your strengthof will, to enact magic. Perhaps you foolishly studied under avampire or from tomes plundered from vampires. Whatever thereason, your sorcerer's use of magic always requires the sacrificeof his own blood. In some cases, it will simply bum away frominside. In others, the magician must cut himself and include itin the ritual. Each use of magic causes an unsoakable level ofbashing damage. Furthermore, the Resonance of your magic islikely to be dark, or at the very least, martyred in nature.

Path Natural (5-pt. Merit)Your sorcerer is especially talented in the exploration of a

single Path of power. He may have a natural inclination towardexpressing its nature due to incredible related mundane skills,spiritual might deriving from past lives or a supernatural heri-tage. He may even have struck holy or unholy bargains forpower. During character creation, you should choose onemagical Path. In this Path, you pay only three-quarters experi-ence to advance to higher levels or to obtain rituals for the Pathchosen.

Struggling Awake (5-pt. Merit)For most mages, the act of Awakening is a sudden explo-

sion of realization, regard less of how long the study has taken toget her there. For some, however, the trip to understandingaffinitive magic is a bout of glimmering sputters, and thistraipsing back and forth across the veil may even happen tosorcerers. A subtle understanding of the broad theories thatbind together vast forces of the universe can briefly seem crystalclear and quickly dissolve into a vague sense of loss. In the faceof the empty feeling of a deeper understanding, the linear mageonce again takes up the reins of power that have been sothoroughly ingrained in her nature, until the glimmer recurs.

Whenever the player tries to call upon his Avatar's strug-gling magic instead of just practicing his normal Paths andrituals, he must first declare what he is trying to do. TheStoryteller then rolls a single die. A result of one is a botch —yes, the Awakening is dangerous— with the most likely resultbeing some episode of Quiet as the sorcerer strives to come toterms with his consciousness. Otherwise, calculate the effect'srating in Arete and Spheres. If the single die roll equals orexceeds this total, then the player rolls normally to cast theeffect, using the minimum dice possible — that is, trying toaffect minor forces (Forces 2) would require at least a four on theinitial single die (two for the Forces, two for the Arete) andwould allow the player to roll two dice for an effect. If the singledie roll falls short, then the magician probably gets some minoreffect in the desired direction but fails to do anything spectacu-lar. All other rules apply as normal to a mage, including sufferingthe forces of Paradox, Fortunately, specialization also applies:All rolls of 10 garner a free additional roll, and a roll of l0 on the

initial single die grants one automatic success to the magicaleffect itself.

As one example, Conrad wants to summon an angel to theaid of his Red Monk sorcerer, but does not have the necessaryPaths or rituals. His pedagogue of an Avatar pushes him to tryanyway. Jess rolls a die and gets a 10, lucky for Conrad. Merelycalling a spirit is a Level Two Spirit effect and thereforeConrad's character gets to roll an Arete of two (the minimumrequired) for the effect. The ten on the Struggling Awake Meritroll does grant him one automatic success, however. Rollingwith an Arete of two Conrad proves exceptionally lucky scoringa success and a 10, allowing him to roll again, which grants himanother success for a total of four. Jess rules that a lesser angelhears and decides to make an appearance. Unfortunately forConrad, this is definitely vulgar, and there is a sleeper present(surprise), so his Red Monk gamers three Paradox points. "TheLord is meant to move in secret," he laments to himself. If thedie rolled a mere two, Conrad's sorcerer would have had but oneArete and one level of Spirit available, and he would bepotentially granted a vision of the local spirit realms and anyangels that might be there. In desperate trouble, he might soonfind himself joining them.

Totem (5-pt- Merit)A powerful spirit has taken a special interest in you. This

is probably pan of your sharnanic path, but it is possible that thespirits have simply chosen you for some higher purpose. Maybeyou are somehow related to one of the Changing Breeds. Thespirit acts as a mentor, and all of the normal rules for mentorsapply, allowing the sorcerer to learn Abilities or Paths related tothe nature of the spirit more easily. You should come to anagreement with your Storyteller as to a type of spirit that mightadopt your sorcerer for what he can offer the natural world.Essentially, the spirit acts like any other mentor excepr that thewisdom it has to offer are mystical and cosmological beyond theken of most masters. Unfortunately, its knowledge of the realworld, outside of whatever its realm of dominion might be, isextremely limited, and it probably believes firmly in the conceptof chiminage. (Chiminage is the idea that service between thematerial and the spiritual is the expected way that things work.)This attitude might be present in a mortal mentor, but it is sureto exist in a Totem.

A more comprehensive version of this Merit (and ofshamanic principles in general) can be found in The SpiritWays.

Psychic Feedback( 1-, 2- or 6-pt Flaw)While the psychic is gifted with potent powers, the use of

the talent tires him. Some psychics even experience minorcerebral hemorrhages from the strain of using the power. As a 1point Flaw, the character experiences headaches or dizzinessfrom each use of die power. Roll Stamina + Meditation (diffi-culty 7) or experience a round of pain or disorientation. Allactions while in this state are at +2 to the difficulty number. Asa 2 point Flaw, the psychic experiences minor long-term pain

56 SORCERER

from use of the power. You should roll Intelligence (difficulty 6)to "soak" the power's activation successes, which are scored asbashing damage. As a 6 point Flaw, the psychic takes this aslethal damage, though a "mental soak" is still allowed.

Unsettling Effect (1- or 3- pt. Flaw)Though many psychic powers are completely intangible

and unnoticeable, something about your character's psychicphenomena causes others to recognize that there's somethingweird going on. For one point, you have a single intangiblepower (like Telepathy or Psychometry) that generates anunsettling effect—perhaps yoursubjects can feel your characterpaging through their mindsoreveryone around thepsychicfeeisa welter of harmless but eerie emotions when she touches apsychically-charged object. For three points, all of your intan-gible powers (including ones that you learn later) have some sortof unsettling effect like this. This is in addition to any Resonancethat your character may have.

Big Mouth (2-pt. Flaw)You talk too much, and it gets you in to trouble. You tend

to blurt out painful truths at inopportune times. At least onceper high-tension social scene, you must speak your mind. Youcan avoid the pain and embarrassment this costs by spending 1Willpower point. This Flaw is particularly dangerous for infor-mation-based psychics, who tend to blurt out other people'ssecrets as readily as their own.

Psi Focus (3- or 5-pt Flaw)Perhaps your psychic needs his lucky crystals to properly

heal the sick. Possibly, his cyberkinetic powers require him tomime the action he wishes the machine to perform. Maybe histelekinesis only works on a hubcap he found one afternoon.

Either way, he requires some form of crutch for his psychicpowers to work. For 3 points, the character must gesture or speaksome catch phrase or incanration for the power to work. For 4points, the power requires a physical focus to work (crystals, ahypnotist's pocket watch, a harmonica). For 5 points, the poweronly works with a specific focus, akin to a mage's unique focus.(See pages 202-203 of Mage Revised).

Path Inept (5-pt. Flaw)For some reason, your sorcerer is considerably limited in his

ability to advance in the study of a certain branch of your chosenmagic. This may be the result of a curse, poor training or evenemotional scars from childhood. Whatever the reason, youmust choose a single Path from that available to your character'sSociety. In this Path, you must spend one quarter more experi-ence points for any gain of Path level or rituals. Be sure to choosea Path that your character plans to study — your Storyteller hasways to get back at you if you try to avoid your Flaw.

Ritual Sleeper (5-pt. Flaw)There is no such thing as the quick fix. Real magic takes

time and effort. You cannot just wave your hand and expect theforces of the universe to leap at your beck and call — at least,that's what your character thinks. You do not have access to anyinstant magical effects whatsoever. All of your sorcerer's magicis therefore limited to rituals. Even normally "instant" effectsrequire some ritual; your sorcerer must devise rituals to performthe equivalents of the fast effects that other sorcerers perform.If the rules for your character's magical society already considerthis, your Storyteller may disallow this option for Raws. Ironi-cally, this means that any time your character witnesses anyinstantaneous magical effect, she is treated as a Sleeper.

Chapter Three: Character Creation 57

CHAPTER FOUR:PATHS AND

RITUALS

The arcane arts follow specific rules and formsthat those with the necessary talent and dedica-tion may exploir. The sorcerer learns the lawsthat govern powers beyond nature, whetherthrough extensions of science or progressionsinto the supernatural. For each route to powerthere is a Path. Be it a mythic thread hidden inlegend — the home remedies passed down in afamily or the 100-year-old formula of a secretsociety — or a highly-specialized branch of sci-

ence, each Path exerts influence over a power beyond the reachof normal, unaided humans.

A sorcerer's study of Paths opens die door to various forms ofmagical practice. Each Path offers command over one aspect ofnature or supemature. Though each Path has limits — one'sunderstanding of the arcane principles of fire does not necessarilytranslate into a mastery of transportation — the diligent srudentcarefully takes step after step until, hopefully, complete dominionover a given area of study is achieved. Other magicians study manyPaths in dilettante-like fashion, gathering a smattering of arcaneknowledge over several mystical or super-scientific principles—justenough to perform curious and impressive feats but far from thepower wielded by a master sorcerer.

While each Path breaks down the components to com-mand and control a specific discipline of study, the Paths

themselves give only the most general instruction. A sorcerer'sknowledge of Paths opens the door to true study but onlyprovides the tools. True, a sorcerer can perform many tasks witha few steps along a Path, but there is a difference betweencontrolling something's nature and understanding its nature. As asorcerer gathers experience, he broadens his knowledge of thePath with rituals. By means of rituals, the sorceter applies thePath's principles to greater effects. Perhaps the scientist under-takes a long laboratory process designed to distill out the pureform of an element, or a magician reinforces his Path skills withlengthy chants and paeans. In either case, the ritual representsa strength born of comprehension, the means to turn simplerPaths to more complex and spectacular ends.

The Structure of PathsThe Paths of magic and science are not dependent on the

tools the sorcerer uses or the studies that the sorcerer under-takes. Be it a technosorcerer using a teleportation apparatus ora student of arcane magics transported by a spirit of wind, bothuse the Path of Conveyance, although they have very differentmeans of implementation.

Paths are broken down into two different parts: spells (alsoreferred to as effects) and rituals. Spells can be cast quickly andcan be modified and customiied easily to allow for changingenvironments and situations. Rituals are much longer, more

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 59

formalized and often more powerful castings that can workpermanent changes. Spells and rituals are divided up into sixlevels; only the first five are available during character genera-tion (and, in all fairness. Storytellers should restrict newlygenerated sorcerers to no more than the third level of experi-ence in any given Path).

ASPECTSSome spells have aspects (or effect components), parts of

the spell that the sorcerer must specify prior to casting. Whena spell is cast, the playet determines how much he wants toemphasize each aspect, by according dots from the Path ratinginto the various aspects. In essence, a sorcerer must divide upsuccesses among various aspects of the spell, just like a mage —affecting multiple people requires several successes, extendingthe duration requires extra successes and so on. The defaultsuccess for a Path assumes casting the spell on one target for thePath'susual specified duration. Anything beyond this requires extrasuccesses placed in the aspects, to gain additional targets, longerduration, wider area, stronger effect and so on. Each Path listsseveral aspect possibilities. These aspects show the typical limitsof the Path at that level of casting — if your sorcerer has threedots in a Path, then the typical spell hits the third aspect levelat best. If you wish, you can cast a spell with a lower aspect; sinceyou use the highest aspect to determine difficulty, this meansthat a sorcerer with a high level in a Path can cast lower-leveleffects more easily. Each aspect that you invoke beyond the firstlevel costs one success — so many Paths require two or threesuccesses to affect anyone other than the caster for more thana moment. Conversely, if you score enough successes, yourStoryteller may allow you to pick a higher level aspect: If youmanage to double your required successes, you can push oneaspect a level above your normal limit! Thus, on a really goodroll, your sorcerer might cast a spell with a much stronger effector longer duration than normal.

RollsAlmost all spells and rituals require an Attribute + Ability

roll. Often, this is Intelligence + Occult (Intelligence + Scienceor Intelligence + Technology for those practicing extraordinaryscience or technosorcery), but some Paths have different re-quirements (see each Path for details).

DifficultyEffects have a base difficulty of (4 + level of the path used,

or the highest desired aspect if an aspected effect). Some effectswill have modifiers to this base level of difficulty; these modifiersare detailed in the text for each Path,

TimeEffects normally take one turn per level of the effect (or the

highest aspect of the effect) to cast, unless noted otherwise. Ritualstake a minimum of 10 minutes and normally take much longer; mostrituals have a description indicating their time component.

Extended RollsIf a spell needs more successes than the sorcerer thinks he

can get in a single period of casting, he can try for an extended

roll, just as with most skill checks. Each additional roll adds timeequal to the amount already spent in casting. For example, ifFather Michael had determined that there was little chance ofhim actually making the blessing work, he could try for anextended roll. Since the highest aspect is 3 dots, the first die rollof the casting will take 3 turns. The second die roll will also take3 turns, the third die roll will take 6 turns to complete, the fourth12, etc. As with all extended task checks, a failure on a die rollsimply means no successes are garhered, but a botch instantlykills the spell, and any chance of success,

FailureIf a sorcerer fails to generate enough successes, the spell fizzles.

Most such failures merely result in die energy being wasted, withonly minor inconveniences or side effects (indeed, for most simpleeffects, failure has no further results).

BotchesAs sorcerers don't tug and pull at the Tellurian with the

same dynamic force that Awakened triages exert, they don'tsuffer the burning backlash of Paradox. On the other hand, asorcerer does still do magic, and channeling such forces is notwithout inherent risk. When a sorcerer botches, those riskscome home.

Typically, a botch results in some sort of chaotic misfire orhorrid backlash from a spell. The exact effects depend upon rhePath in question and the use in particular. Most Path descrip-tions include ideas for various botch possibilities. The Storytellershould tailor the results of the botch to the Path's power level,the desires of the sorcerer and the style of magic used. Forinstance, a machine designed to harness metaphysical energy isfar more likely to explode than a flying carpet.

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Ignoring AspectsThe new system of aspects for spells and rituals adds

flexibility and detail to Sorcery, but at the cost of somesimplicity. If Storytellers prefer, they can easily ignore theaspects and merely set all aspect ratings to equal the dots ofknowledge the sorcerer has in the Path or that he is using.So, for instance, if a sorcerer has three dots in Healing, thenany healing he does will cure one level of bashing damage,relieve fairly major pains, cure any disease of Toxin Rating2 or lower and cause lethal damage to heal 25 percent fasterthan normal, with a difficulty of 7. When choosing toignore aspects, the Storyteller will have to adjudicate howmany successes are necessary for an effect to work; gener-ally, however, a single success will allow for a relativelysimple effect to come off, while 3 successes will ensure thatmost spells will work without difficulty.

Note that the psychic phenomena in Chapter Five donot use aspects; they're assumed to be simpler in effect,generally because they're easier to perform. You can easilyconvert psychic phenomena to use aspects if you want,though this can make them more powerful — at the costof additional successes the player could specify a muchlarger area or effect than normal.

The Paradox rules (p. 194 of Mage Revised) give some ideas formagical botches. Of course, sorcerers don't usually have matters endas badly. In general, a sorcerous botch doesn't automatically inflictdamage and almost never results in a manifestation of a spirit, realmor Quiet. Usually, the botch simply means that the spell fires off aneffect completely out of the sorcerer's control and against his desire.There are exceptions, though! Sometimes spirits do show up tochastise errant sorcerers, and sometimes the magicians find them-selves shunted to strange realms or struck insane. It's all part of theprice of power....

RitualsMany Paths have rituals associated with them (and some

Paths can only be used as rituals, such as Enchantment andAlchemy). Rituals are collections of precise mystical formulasthat take time and effort, and usually some small expense, tobring about but have effects that are greater than a quick spell.Rituals normally take longer to work than a spell or effect, buttheir power can be much greater — often greater than thatwhich a student of the Path would normally be able to summonat their current level of experience.

Most rituals require a basic level of knowledge about anassociated Path; those that do not can be learned by anyone, eventhose who have not studied the Path (an example of this isCounterspells, which are really just a set of rituals and spells that arecommon knowledge to all Paths). This knowledge requirement isindicated by the dot rating of the ritual; if a ritual has a rating in dots,you must have at least that many dots in the Path to learn it. Allrituals cost 3 points to learn; finding someone to teach one to yourcharacter, or the grimoires necessary, is always another matter...many of these rituals are known only as rumor or legend. In someexceptional cases, even the totally uninitiated can use rituals, castingthem by rote out of a grimoire... or they can try! Botches in thesecases are usually incredibly bad.

Creating RitualsSorcerers can create new rituals, under certain special

circumstances. They might happen upon a new alchemicalformula, for example, or they may perform a given extendedcasting of a spell so many times that they formalize the process.Storytellers may also wish to create their own rituals for inclu-sion in their games. The guidelines here are just that, guidelines;as always, let your own judgment as Storyteller and the needs ofyour chronicle be your guides.

That said, typically, a ritual allows a spell to have a greaterduration, power or area of effect than a normal spell will allow,at the cost of a much greater casting time (most rituals take atleast 10 minutes to cast, and many take hours or even days).Some rituals will give the sorcerer access to more ability than hewould normally have (usually equal to an additional dot in thePath; so a Level Three ritual might let the wizard cast an effectthat would normally need Level Four in the Path). In the caseof Paths with aspects, a ritual might allow the sorcerer to cast aneffect created with twice the normal amount of aspected suc-

cess, or might give access to powers that are related to the Path,but not a normal aspect of the Path.

The creator must have knowledge in the Path at least onedot higher than that needed to learn the ritual (especially if theritual allows the sorcerer using it to exceed his normal knowl-edge). He must also spend some months in research, working onperfecting the new ritual (during which time he will cast theritual many, many times and likely become thoroughly sick ofit before he is done). Once all this is accomplished, rollIntelligence + Occult (difficulty 9). You must achieve at least 3successes for the sorcerer to successfully create a ritual that willactually be useful and comprehensible to others; otherwise, it'sback to the drawing board. At the Storyteller's discretion, anastounding success (6+ successes) may result in a rirual that isexceptional in some way; it may be easier to learn (lowered Pathknowledge), have additional (beneficial) effects or take lesspower or time to cast. A botch might mean that the work issimply wasted, that the final test ritual backfires (injuring thecreator) or that the ritual works, but has some unexpected (andundesirable) side effect.

Paths and StylesThough not technically a "game mechanic," a sorcerer's

style is as important as any other aspect of practicing a Path,Each sorcerer learned to do magic in a specific, linear fashion,and that form always colors the sorcerer's technique, even if thecharacter later learns new methods. The members of the An-cient Order of Aeon Rites, for instance, base much of their workon Pythagorean numerology and Enochian rituals; practicingPaths through such means seems very different from a wisewoman's use of herbs and songs or an extraordinary scientist'shigh-tech tools and labs.

The primary division is whether the character is a mythicsorcerer or an extraordinary scientist. The former relies uponmagical techniques and builds Paths through supernaturalcorrespondences, tables, rituals, prayers, chants or similar meth-ods. The latter uses extremely advanced scientific theories,specialized tools, delicate procedures and specially-preparedresearch environments. To the uneducated observer, the ad-vanced research lab is just as arcane as the magician's library,and the maddeningly complex 12 circles of ritual summoningare just as indecipherable as a scientist's tensor calculationsrelating to space-time motion. Both use "magic," but oneproceeds from the mystical while the other proceeds from therational. The two rarely work together, given the dichotomybetween Traditions and Technocrats. (Technically, psychicscould be considered a third style, but their phenomena havespecial rules detailed in Chapter Five and are typically notincluded in the usual groups of sorcery.)

Once the base type of style is established, look into thesorcerer's style in a more personal fashion. Does the mystic relyupon runes, charms, special words of power or elaborate dances?Does the scientist study pharmacology, high-energy physics orbionics? See Chapter Two for several societies that give ex-amples of styles.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 61

ADVANCED TECHNIQUESFAST CASTING

In a crisis, a sorcerer can choose to trade difficulty for speed —by cutting corners and leaving out controls, the sorcerer is able to geta spell done more quickly, although the spell is much more difficultto control. For every turn you shave off the casting time for the effect,add a +1 to the di f f icu l ty (maximum 9; additional modifiers createa threshold, as in Mage Revised p. 62). Spells cast this way alwaysrequire a Willpower point, above and beyond their normal costs.

HANGING SPELLSSorcerers have long realised that while their spells and

rituals can produce some impressive results, they are not nor-mally fast working. Some sorcerers dealt with this problem bystudying the martial arts as well as the mystical ones. Otherslured guards to protect them or attempted to make themselvesso indispensable to their community that none would want tovisit violence upon them. Some, instead, learned new ways ofcasting spells and rituals so that the sorcerer could carry them,nearly hut nor quite activated, until they were needed. Thesespells are commonly referred to as being "hung" or stored by thesorcerers who practice this art.

To hang a spell for later casting, the sorcerer casts thespell as per normal bur pays one Willpower immediately andadds one to the di f f icu l ty . The player then marks down thename of the spell and the number of successes scored. Thesorcerer may then release the spell at any time (so long as thesorcerer would normally be able to cast a spell — an uncon-scious magician can't release a held spell). Releasing a spelltakes one turn; at that time, the player must pay the normalcasting cost for the spell or r i t u a l and allocate successes onthe spell's aspects, if any.

A hung spell is a constant distraction to the sorcerer; itrequires a small level of semi-constant attention, even whensleeping, thar is a persistent drain on the sorcerer's focus.The sorcerer adds +1 to a l l mental and social tasks while sheis carrying a hung spell. This penalty increases by an addi-tional + 1 for every additional two spells the sorcerer iscarrying (+2 at three spells, +3 at five spells, etc.).

Note that Awakened mages tend to "hang" spells byusing a Time effect in conjunction with the regular effect,and a mage's "hung" spell usually only counts against addi-tional magic, not against other tasks. Depending upon howflexib le you want to make sorcerers, you could allow asorcerer to hang spells with only a concentration penalty toadditional magic, or you might have an entire Path devotedto hanging spells (in which case the sorcerer would need aPath raring for Spell Hanging equal to the Path rating of thespell stored).

Trading Skill for PowerExperienced sorcerers can reduce or even eliminate the

high price most Paths charge in Willpower. A sorcerer withtwo more dots in a Path than the minimum required for adesired effect may choose to cast the spell at the higherdiff icul ty and reduce the cost in Willpower by one.

Messing with the VariablesBy default, sorcery is a mysterious, meticulous art

that takes time to build up, time to work and. inreturn, has fairly reliable set effects. Some Storytell-ers, however, want a faster-moving system for sorceryor one that is easier to work and more potent. Con-versely, other Storytellers want to make sorcery harderto work, especially in any kind of hurry and much lessreliable. Here are some suggestions for each. Usually,adjusting only one of these variables wil l have theeffect you want; modifying all of them wil l make for avery different magic system,

DIFFICULTYReducing the difficulty roll to 3 + level of effect

brings sorcery on a par with a vampire's blood magic andmakes sorcerers a little more competitive with othersupernatural creatures. Increasing it to 5 + level of effectmakes it much more difficult ro pull off large effects ofany kind.

TimeReducing the time cost to 1 turn per 2 levels of effect

makes small effects very easy to use and large onesfeasible even in combat. Doubling or tripling the timecost makes effects strictly non-combat (since most fightswill be long over by the time the casting is done). It thisoption is taken, you may want to eliminate the conceptof Fast Casting altogether.

WillpowerMany effects cost Willpower to use; reducing or

eliminating these costs make sorcerers able to carry ontheir activities for a much longer period of time (possiblytoo long). Increasing the Willpower costs makes spellcasting a much more unusual activity, something to bedone only when all other chances have been used up.

Restricting KnowledgeSome of the higher levels of Path knowledge can

wreak some pretty impressive effects. Even with Story-teller prerogative and the need to work behind thescenes for the most part, there may be levels of a Path (orentire Paths) that the Storyteller simply doesn't wanther players to have access to. This is fine; not every Pathis appropriate for every game, and some games will stresssome Paths above others. Storytellers should thereforefeel free to restrict, or even disallow, any and all Pathsfrom unlimited advancement or charge extra experiencecosts (or other, darker, costs) for some Paths.

62 SORCERER

Example: Danielle is a master Shapeshifter, with four dots inthe Path. She decides she would rather be a redhead, and worksa spell to change her hair color and adjust her skin and eye colorslightly to match. Normally, this would cost 1 Willpower, require

• • in the Path (to effect multiple small changes at once) and havea difficulty of 6. She decides that she'd rather not deal with thecost, casts the spell at her highest difficulty (8) and forgoes the costin Willpower.

Spending a point of Willpower (in addition to whatevercosts the spell normally incurs) gives the sorcerer one automaticsuccess, in addition to those rolled on the dice. Raw Quintes-sence is typically useless to a sorcerer; she literally does not knowit is present and cannot interact with it in any meaningfulfashion. A particularly potent bit of Tass might be of use to theadept sorcerer if she uses it in some appropriate fashion: ingest-ing a bit of faerie food, burning the remnants of an archmage'sstaff in a ritual fire, etc. Normally, this will reduce the difficultyof a sorcerer's task by 1 or 2. Most sorcerers stick with aspecialized form of Tass or Quintessence according to theirversion of magic — a sorcerer used to chi energy will store andconcentrate only that sort of power (see also the Mana Back-ground, p. 53).

Combining Paths and SpellsSpells from disparate Paths cannot be combined for

additional effects: Each spell is a separate entity, and theknowledge of one Path does not easily mesh with that ofother Paths. A series of spells could be linked together (usingConjuration to summon a weapon, then the Hellblade ritualto set it on fire immediately), but both spells must be enactedseparately. Alternately, a sorcerer might be able to fashion aritual that relies upon the knowledge of multiple Paths orhang one spell in order to cause it to affect a later spell, butthese complexities are in the Storyteller's hands. Mostsorcerers should be restricted to the limits of each individualPath. By definition, such Paths are linear magics, not theaffinitive, flexible power of the Awakened Spheres,

Sometimes, you can only get by with a little help fromyour friends. In order for two or more sorcerers to cooperateon a spell, they must both have the same Path (a masterConjuror is of little help to the Healer trying to cure a cancerpatient). One sorcerer (usually the most skilled) is chosen asthe prime caster, makes all rolls for the spell and derermineshow any aspects are set. Note that, generally, sorcerers canonly cooperate if they have roughly compatible practices. Amagician from the Ancient Order of Aeon Rites, used tousing precise Pythagorean formulae, may not have anyreference point to combine her spells with a psychic's powersor a techno-shaman's spirit machinery.

Each assistant rolls her magic check as well, to see if shesucceeds in helping the lead spellcaster. Two sorcerers canoperate together without a problem (aside from the clash ofpersonalities, magical styles, foci, agendas...); each addi-tional sorcerer adds one turn to the casting time for the spell.Each successful assistant reduces the difficulty of the leader'smagic roll by one, to a minimum difficulty of 3.

Failure can carry a heavy price. If none of the assistantssucceed at their magic checks, there is no additional problem,but if any assistant botches, add 2 to the prime caster's difficulty(anything above 9 adds thresholds, as usual). If the leader of thespell botches, any complications gathered fall not only on theleader, bur on the whole team. This can be very unpleasantwhen performing major rituals or Summonings....

Counterspells and UnweavingAny sorcerer who does more than dabble in the Arts will

learn at least some basic countermagic, if only so that theycan try and undo the messes they inevitably create whilelearning. There are as many different forms of countermagicas there are spells; in plain terms, however, they are dividedinto two basic types: Counterspells arid Unweaving.

Counterepells are cast at an incoming spell or effect andserve to blunt or dispel it before it can take effect. Roll Wits +Occult (difficulty 8); each success you score cancels one of theopponent's successes. If the opponent ends up without enoughsuccesses for the spell to go off, then it fails (but she still loseswhatever costs she paid, be it blood, Quintessence, Willpoweror whatever). You can spend Willpower to aid a Counterspell,but you must score at least one natural success for the Counterspellto work at all.

Unweaving is the art of disassembling another spell caster'seffect. The sorcerer must have knowledge of the Path that was usedto create the effect in the first place (if trying to unweave an effectnot based on sorcery, such as Thaumarurgy, Sphere magic or the like,use the Path most applicable). If your character has at least one dotin the Path (or a related one) being used, roll Intelligence + Occult(difficulty 8), using the Extended Rolls rules (see above). You mustscore at least as many successes as the original caster scored tounweave the spell;otherwise, it may be weakened, but it will remain.Long standing Enchantments and those based on Thaumaturgy orSphere magic can take more effort to unweave; In the case of veryancient, very powerful Enchantments, sometimes as many as 15 oreven 20 successes might be needed (time tor some teamwork).

Spells cast by sorcerers (or others) that are more knowl-edgeable than the unweaver are significantly more difficult toundo. For every rwo levels of difference between the unweaver'slevel in a Path and the original caster's level, an additionalsuccess is needed. Thus, if you have no knowledge of the Pathof Hellfire and your opponent has four dots with 6 successes onan effect, you would need 3 successes in order to cancel the firstsuccess and 8 to completely wipe out the spell.

Counterspells and Unweaving work against sorcery and Spheremagic (and, if the Storyteller wishes, against the mystic powers ofvampiric magic, faerie glamour and the like). There are alsospecialized versions of Counterspells and Unweaving designed towork against spirit powers (such as spirit Charms, ghostly manifes-tations and similar otherworldly occurrences). These must bebought separately. Each group of countermagic costs 3 freebie orexperience points, so buying a full set of countermagics costs 12points. For a sorcerer more interested in staying alive than in dealingdamage, it's an investment well worth the cost.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 63

Willpower and Quintessence

Teamwork

Sorcery is an imprecise and mysterious Art that tries to blendinto the shadows whenever it can. With the powers of knowledge,will and desperation behind them, sorcerers can perform mightyfeats, but they cannot move mountains, raise the long dead or blastelder vampires into dust. If a sorcerer attempts some magic thatobviously flaunts reality (blasting police officers into flinders withHellfire in the middle of a prison or making the Statue of Liberty walkdown Broadway) without some seriously good explanations, theStoryteller is perfectly within his prerogative to simply say 'That failsutterly," no matter how many successes the sorcerer generates orhow much Willpower the player spends. Some things are simplyimpossible for a sorcerer.

While mages have the risk of Paradox when performingimpossible feats in public, a sorcerer tends to risk outright failure. If

a sorcerer attempts an obviously impossible feat in public and rolls a failure,the result is created as a botch. (This does not apply if the Storytellerrules a failure with no roll.) So, although a sorcerer may not be cartedoff by a Paradox spirit, he will still suffer the consequences of hishubris, and his magic will still turn the universe against him. Just asthe sorcerer's power is more limited in some ways than an Awakenedmage's, so too are the consequences for failure usually less severe.Usually. In short, a sorcerer doesn't have the power to fling arounddisaster-free magical effects in public any more than a mage does, butat least he's less likely to explode.

Storytellers Note: This should not be thought of as a loopholewith which to dick your players at every turn — or even just becausewhat they are trying to do will mess with what you want to have happen.It is merely intended to reflect the limitations a sorcerer works under,while discouraging those who try to abuse the systems presented.

AlchemyAlchemy is the science, art and study of thetransformation of the base and profane into thepure and the sacred. At its heart are the disci-plines of the Hermetic student, the holy words ofthe Kabbalah and the Koran, mystic secrets fromAsia and China and an inherent assumption inthe perfectibility of all things — often tied upwith a healthy dose of Christian beliefs and

heresies. Although thought by many to be Western magic andto date from the Renaissance, its ties and history trace them-selves throughout Asia Minor and Europe, and even to China,where it is known as Tan, is closely tied with the Wu Keng anddates back at least 2,000 years.

The alchemist believes that all things in nature can betransformed, or purified, into a higher essence. At it's mostbasic, Alchemy is the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone(which, depending on the alchemist you listen to, is eithera tincture [usually red], a glowing stone of beauty, a powder,a solvent, a waxy substance or some other form), which cantransform lead into gold (from the basest metal to thehighest), grant immortality, raise the dead and perform ahost of other miraculous deeds (exactly which deeds are,again, rather hard to pin down).

An alchemist could spend a lifetime trying to separatetruth from the legends, lies and myths that are wrapped up inalchemical lore and still not get very far (especially because ina practice that wanders the line between art and science, oneperson's lie is another's solid truth). So most alchemists don'ttry, instead spending their lives experimenting and analyzingwhat has worked for them, painstakingly measuring the resultsof each test for any new insight or path forward on the way totheir Philosopher's Stone or spend years apprenticed to an-other, more knowledgeable alchemist, learning his craft by rote.A few recognize the underpinning truth of alchemy: Theprocess of purification leads inevitably to the purification ofhumanity, the pursuit of spiritual perfection.

Herbalism and Brewing is the art of using the naturalproperties of various plant and animal pates (tanging fromSt. John's Wort and dried bear gonads to even more exoticingredients) to enhance the natural processes of the humanbody. In so doing, the herbalist can also induce effects thatmay seem magical to others but are (in the herbalist's eyes)merely examples of what the human body can do whenproperly motivated and reinforced with the power of nature.

Advanced Chemistry is a science, and its practitionetsdon't even think of it as being magic at all (although someof its effects, they admit, may seem magical if you don'tunderstand the science behind them). Advanced Chemistryis similar to the more mundane chemistry studied in highschool labs around the world but is more impressive in it'sapplication thanks to the advanced understandings that areits foundations. Some Advanced Chemistry relies on chemi-cal formulae and processes as yet undiscovered by moremundane scientists or on new and unique implementationsof already existing knowledge, while other advances requirethe use of basic nanotechnology and DNA/RNAresequencing.

SystemRoll: Intelligence + Alchemy (Alchemical Procedures)

Intelligence + Herbalism (Herbalism Procedures)Intelligence + Science (Advanced ChemistryProcedures)

Alchemy, Herbalism OrAdvanced Chemistry?

So which is it? Well, all three, actually. Dependingon the sorcerer and what belief structure she has, she maystudy any of them or some strange mixture of all three!Alchemy as a Path simply represents any number ofmaterial transformative skills that result in elixirs usefulas potions, salves or unguents.

The Many Paths

Storyteller's Prerogative

64 SORCERER

Cost: One Willpower per operationModifiers: -1 difficulty if ritual is knownTime: Default is one day per level of effect. For each dot of

knowledge the alchemist has that exceeds the levelof the effect, reduce this by one day (So an alchemistwith four dots of Alchemy can do a Level Twooperation in a few hours). Rarely less than an hour.

Duration: Varies, but normally one sceneEach dot in this Path represents an overall knowledge of

the chosen specialization (Advanced Chemistry, Alchemyor Herbalism); more dots indicate that the sorcerer can makemore advanced or difficult compounds with greater effects.The rituals are examples and can be undertaken by anyonewith the appropriate knowledge (most rituals have a coun-terpart in the other branches of study; an alchemist's Dust ofRevealing the Unseen is a technosorcerer's RadioactiveTracking Powder or Etheric Interference Detection Gas).

An alchemist may spend one experience point (or onefreebie point during character creation) to master a particu-lar ritual. This gives the caster -1 difficulty on all rolls for thatritual, and lets him use it as if he had one more level ofAlchemy when determining the brewing/casting time.

EffectsNote that Alchemy does not have "aspects" as such.

The caster need only score basic success to make a givenelixir as listed below. However, the elixir may lose itspotency or work with only partial strength if the player doesnot score three or more successes.

• The alchemist can create compounds and substancesthat are simply more advanced and potent versions of chemi-cals that already exist. These compounds don't appear magicalin any way. Painkillers, soporifics, poisons and glues arecommon examples.

• • More advanced versions of what is available alreadywith one dot. Some of these substances might allow theimbiber to exceed his normal physical limits or to gain accessto more mystical senses, in dreams or hallucinations. Youcan raise one attribute by one dot (up to the normal maxi-mum of five dots) for up to a scene.

• • • You can make substances drat enhance their target tosuperhuman levels or create materials that exceed normallimitations (supernaturally strong alloys, etc). Some of thesesubstances can temporarily invest their imbiber with some low-level psychic ability (see Chapter Five) for a limited period oftime (no more than one hour or so).

• • • • You can create substances that will enhance At-tributes by up to two dots for a scene (one dot if affectingmultiple Attributes), even beyond normal human maxi-mums, or minor items with some potent effect.

• • • • • With this level of knowledge, you can duplicate thepowers of supernatural creatures, including Gifts, Disciplines andother abilities of up to the third level. You can also duplicate theinnate powers of those creatures (the powers of the fae, wraiths andthe imbued, cannot be duplicated). These potions will normallyrequire some sample from the being in question (Vitae, powdered

dragon fang, hair from a werewolf, etc) or extended close up andpersonal study of the subject (this is usually only appropriate forstudents of Advanced Chemistry and may still require tissue samples).Such concoctions often have nasty side effects as well (the morepowerful the Gift or Discipline, the more pronounced the sideeffects).

• • • • • • The pinnacle of alchemical tradition; trans-mutation of materials from one form to another, immortalityregimens, the Philosopher's Stone. In theory an alchemist ofthis level might even be able to concoct a potion that causesAwakening, transformation into a vampire, mummificationor true immortality,

Sample Alchemy Rituals• A powder that, when mixed with alcohol, induces

slumber almost immediately. The target must roll Stamina(difficulty 8) or spend a point of Willpower to stay conscious;he must remake this attempt (at a -1 to Difficulty each time)every round until he succumbs or the drug no longer has achance of success. Unconsciousness lasts for (10 - Stamina)hours, during which they cannot be roused. Vampires arealmost immune to this drug (+2 to Stamina, add Fortitude,and effects, if they succumb, last 10 - (Stamina + Fortitude)minutes), but werewolves in their "normal" form (Homid orLupus) are susceptible (+2 to the roll),

• A pill that removes all side effects from a minor coldor flu for 24 hours when taken and reduces the recovery timefor the illness to one half.

• • A form of prophecy-bearing super-LSD. When in-gested, the user will be able to see things that were notpreviously obvious to him or will be granted a vision of thefuture. These messages will always be cloaked in symbolismand analogy, but will be correct... to the limits of the user'sunderstanding.

• • A potion that doubles the user's running speed for onescene. After using this potion, the user must make a Staminacheck (difficulty 6) or be totally out of breath and shaky (-2 onall physical die rolls) for the next hour.

• • • A metal alloy that is lighter and stronger thantitanium (but easier to work), retains an edge almost foreverand stays more resilient than the finest blade. Armor pro-duced with this alloy gets an extra dot of bashing and lethalsoak, and melee weapons made of it do one more die ofdamage and are -1 difficulty to hit with (due to their lightweight and fine balance).

• • • A fine metallic dust that reveals hidden, disguisedor invisible things for what they truly are or disrupts illusions,

• • • • A chemical compound that raises the user'sPhysical Attributes for (Stamina +3) hours. During thistime, the user will be very hungry, due to the excess strainbeing placed on her metabolism. This chemical may raiseuser Attributes to 6 dots or higher.

• •••A regimen of drugs and potions that extends theuser's life (though not indefinitely). While on the regimen,the user ages at the rate of one month for every year. If theregimen is halted, these years come back upon the user at the

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 65

rate of one month per day, until the regimen is started backup or the user dies of old age.

• •••• A compound that werewolves find anathema.When spread on the skin, no werewolf (or other ChangingBreed) can approach within striking range of the user; they canthrow things or use ranged weapons but will not willingly getwithin 10 feet of the wearer. Of course, the substance smells sobad that most humans won't want to either....

• •••• A potion that gives the user the Stamina,Strength and speed of a vampire for a single scene. The userhas one extra action per turn, one automatic Strengthsuccess and one extra soak die versus all attacks for the scenefollowing ingestion. The user will also have an unnaturallyhigh temper and a thirst for blood,

Cost of FailureBeyond the inevitable ruined glassware and loss of

ingredients, a simple failure also normally means a nasty,smelly and hard to clean up mess in the lab. Botches can bemuch more severe; the substance may look okay but reallyhave very different effects (and a simple toxin is the best thatcan be hoped for, in many cases), the substance may catchfire and explode, or something totally different from whatwas expecred or anticipated may happen, which is almostalways a bad thing.

ConjurationThe master conjuror can move items (though not him-

self) through space; scientists call this ability apportation ortelekinesis (depending on whether or not the item passesthrough the intervening space between where it is and wherethe conjuror wishes ir to be), while those knowledgeable inSphere magics claim that this is a limited application of theSphere of Correspondence.

Many sorcerers who choose to practice their Arts openly,or somewhat openly, master Conjuration, if only to earn aliving from their studies. With it, all manner of parlor tricksand stage magics can be emulated — of course, when aconjuror claims that there's nothing up her sleeves, therereally isn't!

For the best effect, an object must be prepared ahead oftime, in a ritual designed to bond the item to the caster,making it easy fot her to latch onto and command later on.This doesn't mean that the Conjuror has to do this; theoreti-cally, a conjuror can take control of anything that she cansee, although in practice this is very difficult to do and muchmore draining.

The more experienced the conjuror is, rhe more she isable to move and the farther and more precisely she canmove it; an experienced conjuror can thread needles, sum-mon a rabbit into a hat from miles away or move an elephantacross a room. The skilled conjuror can also manipulatemultiple objects.

It is very difficult to use conjuration offensively (evenbeyond the length of tme it normally takes to effect a change).

A willing subject, properly prepared (which usually involves atleast a low level of mesmerism) can be the subject of a conjura-tion, but the least resistance renders the effect almost impossible.With enough luck (and Willpower), a sorcerer might be able toconjure a weapon out of the hands of an opponent, but attemptsat this are dreadfully prone to failure.

SystemRoll; Dexteriry + OccultModifiers: +1 for working against an object in the hands

of someone who is resisting-1 for an object that is well known to the caster(Storyteller's discretion).+2 to work against a resisting, living, target

Cost: None for prepared object, one Willpower forobject that has not been prepared

Duration: Instantaneous. For lasting effects (a set of pup-pets dancing without strings, a whirling dervishof knives, etc.) pay one Willpower for every turnyou want it to last.

66 SORCERER

AspectsWeight

•

••

•••

••••

•••••

••••• •

Less than an ounce. A coin, business card,penknife, etc.A few pounds, a hardcover book. At this level, verysmall or simple lifeforms (insects, snails, etc. ) can bemanipulated as well.A largish object (computer monitor, telephone)weighing up to 100 pounds. Living beings can bemoved as well, although the conjurer cannotmanipulate humans.Something as large as an armoire, weighing 1,000pounds or so can be moved. Humans can bemanipulated, so long as they are willing, uncon-scious or hypnotized.At this level, the conjuror can move a car or anelephant around. An unwilling human subjectcould also be moved, although this is verydifficult.The height of Conjuration allows you to movethings as large as a city bus or a loaded 18-wheeler.Feats of this magnitude must be carefully ar-ranged and prepared for ahead of time, and thecost of failure is exceptionally high.

•

••

•••

••••

•••••

No more than a couple of feetObjects can be moved 20 feet or so.The conjuror can summon an object from over100 feet away.The object being manipulated can be summoned forth from (or sent away to) a 1 o -cation up to a half mile away.Summoned objects can be made to appearfrom five miles away.

Distance

RitualsSword Summoning (•••)Although more often used to draw forth loaded shot-

guns than long swords in these modem times, many Templarsare taught this ritual so that, in extremis, they are neverwithout a weapon. This ritual is almost always hung — theTemplar ritually prepares the weapon before entering somesiruation where he thinks it may be necessary, and keeps italways in his mind as he works. When he needs the weapon,he finishes the ritual and draws the weapon forth from someconvenient shadow or out from underneath a trenchcoat.The difficulty is 7 (6 if the weapon or tool is well known tothe user), and the device must normally be within a mile orso of the user and no larger than a shotgun or long sword. Nosummoning light machine guns with this ritual! If attemptedin plain sight of unbelievers, this ritual will almost always fail(difficulty 9).

Shitstorm (••••)This ritual allows the sorcerer to take a large number of

small objects and spin them about himself in a deadlywhirlwind of flying debris. The difficulty of this rirual is 7 (8if cast under duress). Each success gained increases thenumber of items in the cloud; the base whirlwind is two yards

• • • • • • The conjuror can bring forth items from al-most anywhere within the city limits and evenfarther; maximum range is about 50 miles.

•

• •

• ••

• •••

• ••••

• •••• •

Almost none; the objects quiver in ways you want.

Rough motor control, about equal to be i n gshoved around with an elbow or fist. Thingspretty much go where you want them to butwithout much finesse.Some fine control; equivalent to an object inhands but slow and unwieldy. Clumsy attacks(+1 difficulty) can be made with this level ofaccuracy.Fine motor control. Equivalent to a normalpair of hands, able to perform fine tasks (open-ing locks, slowly threading a needle, etc.).Extreme control. The item(s) will dowhatever you ask, quickly and efficiently.Objects do things you don't ask them to b u tin keeping with what you want done.

Accuracy

•

• •

• ••• •••

• • • ••

• • • • • •

One itemTwo itemsThree itemsA small group (under 10) of near-identica1items, or three items that aren't closely r e -lated to each other.10-20 items of similar nature, or a lessernumber of non-simitar items.Up to 100 similar items, or 25 or so unre-lated objects.

Number

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 67

in diameter (usually centered on the caster), plus one yardfor each success gained. Anyone caught in the whirlwindtakes (successes) dice in bashing damage; in some cases thismight be lethal damage (if the caster is in a room filled withglass breakables or cutlery or other small sharp objects...).

Price of FailureA simple failure means the object fails to move at all,

disappears never to be seen again or drops to the ground atan embarrassing or dangerous moment (like the keys fallingright behind the lecturing guard...). Botches can summonthe wrong object (or person...), put it in the wrong place ordestroy it in some particularly messy fashion. Botches withliving targets are general very bad; stories tell of magiciansassistants that disappear never to be seen again or, worse,show up in the disappearing booth days later, hideouslymutilated. And few want to consider the fates of thosemagicians who have failed some tremendous feat of Conju-ration, only to disappear themselves...

Seven league boots, flying carpets, witches brooms,demonic chariots pulled by skeletal fire-breathing steeds,teleportation gateways; myth and legend are full of stories ofthose who could bypass the hazards and annoyances of longjourneys, spanning the lengths of countries in hours orseconds. At least some of these stories can be laid at the feetof sorcerers practicing the Path of Conveyance, avoiding thehassles of the road by flying over it, riding it at speeds noother could manage or bypassing it altogether.

"Conventional" Conveyance requires some sort of steed;this may be a broom, four-poster bed, bicycle, Oriental rug,giant cauldron or a fiery coach-and-four. More technologi-cally oriented sorcerers use jet packs or impossibly fastLamborghinis and Prowlers (the deluxe version has stealthcapabilities, to avoid police radar, but this is superfluous ingeneral; few troopers will believe that they saw a Ferraridoing over 500 kph down a busy thruway... especially whenit looks like the car isn't actually touching the ground).

With enough understanding of this Path, the sorcererneed not bother with a vehicle at all, merely willing herselfto be where she wants to be without actually crossing theintervening distance. Technosorcerers may refer to this asteleportation, using some kind of booth, apparatus or evenphone lines, while a more classical sorcerer may summon upa friendly spirit to do the work for him.

Conveyance can be used on other people, although onlyteleportation effects can be used offensively and only withvery great difficulty,

SystemRoll: Stamina + OccultModifiers: +2 for working against a resisting object/target, -

1 for a location that is well known to the caster(Storyteller's discretion). +1-2 if traveling some-where while being observed.

Cost: One Willpower

68 SORCERER

Duration: The length of time it takes to pass from pointA to point B

ASPECTSTraveling to a place you have never been to adds one

success to the total. Teleporting requires two additionalsuccesses. (Teleportation is not necessarily instantaneous;you must still assign a rating to Speed.) Crossing throughbarriers in your way requires one success per barrier (and itmust be something that you could actually find a way around;a hermetically sealed chamber is safe from your powers).

Range•

• •

• • •

• •••

• ••••

• •••• •

10 feet or less (across a room)100 feet (across a warehouse)about a mileup to five milesapproximately 10 miles (across the city)100 miles

These ranges are guidelines and assume a relativelyinhabited environment; passing through deserted prairies orarctic wildernesses is much easier, and ranges might bedoubled or even trebled in such terrains.

Speed•

• •

• ••

• • • •

• • • • •

• • • • • •

About three times what you could manage onfootYou get there about as fast as you would ifyou had driven, red lights and allAs above, but you ignore speed limits andred lights and traffic; about 45 seconds permile of distance traveled.You can cover miles in seconds.InstantaneouslyYou can, when you have to, get therebefore you left. . . or that's the way it seems.

Number•

• •

• ••

• • • •

• • • • •

• • • • • •

Yourself, and if you're lucky, your clothes comewith you...Yourself, some clothes and up to 20 pounds ofstuffYourself and one other person or a couplehundred poundsTwo passengersThree passengersUp to five people can come with you

RITUALSTeleport Ward (••)Even a novice student of the Path of Conveyance can

create wards against unwanted intrusion by others using thisPath. To ward a room or building against teleporting intrud-ers, the sorcerer must first mark the limits of the ward he isgoing to place, (technosorcerers, for example, will set upelectromagnetic interference waveguides, subspace harmonicoscillators and other equipment, while a sorcerer trained in

Conveyance

the Hermetic Arts would scribe sigils of protection on thewalls, doors, windows, floor and ceiling of each room hewanted to protect). Once this is done, the sorcerer rollsStamina + Occult against a difficulty of 7. Each successtolled is an additional success needed by someone trying toteleport into the warded atea without knowing how tobypass the ward. This ptotection degrades by one success permonth; it can be maintained, howevet, with the expendituteof a point of Willpower and a single success on a Stamina +Occult roll (difficulty 6).

Get Me The Heck Outta here! (• • •)Often cast as a hanging ritual by those more interested

in avoiding fights than finishing them, this ritual carries theuser back to a home location (this can be any location thecaster knows well but must be specified when the ritual isperformed) instantaneously, as long as the locale is withintange (no more than 50 miles). This ritual costs one Will-power, and the user must achieve at least 4 successes on aStamina + Occult (difficulty 8) roll; additional successesscored can aid in the necessary range (20 miles per additionalsuccess). If the home location is out of reach, a Wits + Occultroll (difficulty 6) will allow the caster to retarget the ritual toanother, closer point.

Teleportal (•••••)Master sorcerers can build permanent gateways be-

tween locations. These gateways through space allow anyone

who knows the opening phrase or command to travel swiftlyfrom one end of the passage to the other. This ritual takesdays of preparation, some of which must be spent at both sites(making this unsuitable for stealthy infiltration of a loca-tion... most of the time). Once these preparations are done,the sorcerer makes an extended Stamina + Occult rollagainst a difficulty of 8; each success adds either 10 miles tothe range (the total distance between the two gateways ofthe portal must be gathered before the ritual can be com-pleted), five uses to the portal or some kind of specificationto the gateway (at either or both ends; for example, a gatewaycould be designated as one-way, could be restricted to womenonly, only the sorcerer who created the gate or only thosewho have a special code word or amulet). Assistants can(and should) be used for this ritual. A Teleportal costs onepermanent point of Willpower to create.

Price of FailureThe Path of Conveyance is fraught with peril. Beyond

any risks of being noticed and the problems inherent to aparticular mode of travel (flying brooms are uncomfortable,especially at high speeds, flying carpets are fragile, flyingointments are a hassle to apply and usually smell funny,Teleportals often bring with them nausea and dizziness),those who travel in this fashion can draw the attention of...beings in the realms they travel through. Any journey of more

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 69

than a mile or so will bring with it the risk of an accident ormisstep. Storytellers should feel to ask for a check midwaythrough the journey to make sure that it is without incident(typically, a single additional success will be sufficient toavert any kind of disaster).

Normal failures simply mean that the spell does not go offatall;a botch, however, can range from calamitous to disastrous,depending on the method of travel and the distances involved;flying brooms may end up plummeting out of the sky, while(deportation botches give the Storyteller a perfect opportunityto recreate their favorite Star Trek transporter mishap or perhapssome choice scenes from The Fly. About the best the sorcerercan hope for is to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with noidea what has happened.

Divination (No Rituals)Lucky numbers for the lottery, whether happiness will

be found in marriage, the outcome of a crucial battle — foras long as theit has been a concept of "tomorrow," peoplehave wanted to know what would happen in the future.Rulers, merchants, generals and wizards have all said theywanted to know their fate, although they have just as oftenrejected that fate when apprised of it; Cassandra's fate is onethat no seer worthy of the title easily forgets. Despite theperils involved, this Path is a well-traveled one.

SystemRoll:Modifiers:

Cost:Duration:

Perception + Fortune Telling+1 if using extraordinary science style (but theanswers will be more precise)NoneIrrelevant

Note: The Storyteller makes all rolls for divinations. Asorcerer rarely knows how accurate her forecasts are.

AspectsTime Period

•

• •

• • •

• • • •

• • • • •

• • • •• •

One weekOne monthOne year10 years20 years forward, up to 100 years backwardAlmost unlimited, in either direction

Accuracy•

• •

• • •

• • • •

• • • • •

• • • •• •

Incredibly vague at bestGenerally accurate, but deeply cloaked insymbolismAccurate, but not always explicitWhile still cloaked in symbolism, the truth is inthere, and digging it out shouldn't be too hardYour results are almost always accurate andusually easy to understandYou know what will happen, when it willhappen and who it will happen to, withoutquestion... unless you're wrong, of course

70 SORCERER

Tools of the DivinerDifferent sorcerers use different paths of knowledge and

took to see the future. Most settle on one set of tools that suitthem best, while a small few will select the tools that are mostsuitable for a given situation or a given client. Few use morethan a handful of techniques, however.

In game terms, the tools the sorcerer uses are irrelevant.In the story, they are vital; you probably won't find atechnosorcerer using the entrails of a goat to tell the futureora neo-pagan using powerful probability analysis software.The tools you use can be a great jumping off point for stories;just possessing, for instance, an advanced laptop for statisticalanalysis could get you in trouble in some parts of the worldfor example, and fishing about in the guts of a goat you justslaughtered would be a great way to get yourself imprisonedin some parts of the United States (and possibly killed in otherparts of the world).

Astrology

Augury

Bibliomancy

Cartomancy

Casting

Dowsing

Haruspication

Oneiromancy

Palmistry

Probability Analysis

Scrying

Predicting the futurethrough the interaction ofthe stars and the planetsand their positions in the sky.

Prediction by observing theactions and flight of birds

Drawing the future fromrandom page-turning in booksUsing a deck of cards topredict the future (e.g.the tarot)Using carved stones or sticksto study the patterns theymake (runes, joss sticks)Searching for water, miner-als, etc. using a forked stickor wire.

Reading the future in theentrails of a sacrifice

Interpreting the symbolismof dreams

Reading the future in thelines and structure of thepalm of another.

Using chaos math, statist!cal analysis and probabilityID determine what may happen in the future.

Looking for the future inpools of water, crystal balls,mirrors, etc

Other tools include reading tea leaves, numerology, ex-amining the shoulderblade (scapulimancy) and a host of others—some would say that there are as many means of divinationas there are diviners, although that might be a bit pedantic.

Storyteller NotesManaging Divination

Of all the Paths presented in this book, Divinationcan be the hardest to keep track of and cope with becauseno other Path has the ability to so totally derail what youhave planned or what has been building up. It also bringsup annoying questions about predestination, whetheryour players can flaunt fate and other tricky problems.

One way to deal with this is to simply disallow thePath of Divination to player characters. This is perfectlywithin your rights as a Storyteller (see Messing with theVariables). It allows you to keep a firm grip on tbedivinations, banding them out when you want to, notwhen your players can't decide which bus to take, so theythrow the joss sticks!

If you do decide to allow players' characters to haveDivination, it should be kept in mind that Divinationworks in symbolism and signs, not direct answers. (Evenextraordinary scientists get only vague predictions andprobabilities, father than exact percentages and accu-rate images of the future — and their predictions aremore prone to being upset by small changes and modi-fications than your average augury is). This means that,unless the sorcerer rolls exceedingly well (or you reallywant to drop a clue in their lap), you can, and should, beincredibly vague in your answers. "You'll die at the handsof a blind man" is a lot easier to fulfill (and a lot harderfor your players to avoid) than, "You'll be run over by abus driven by a really near-sighted bus driver who lost acontact lens at 8:30 in the evening on a Tuesday."

One thing to do, when working with a characterwho has Divination, is to keep the question "And whathappens if he casts a Divination about <x>?" in yourhead. Even if you don't actually write anything down,asking the question gives you an idea of what theresponses might be. Knowing this can also allow you towork divinations into your chronicle ahead of time

Once a prediction has been handed down, you willhave to decide if it is absolute or if the players will be ableto avoid it or twist it in some fashion. In general, you maywant to allow them to slip out from the noose of doom;predestination makes for great stories but can be hard onboth the players and their characters. If you do decide itis an absolute, then the prediction should come topass... in some fashion. Just because the players think aprediction is centered on their characters doesn't meanit has to be; a prediction of death doesn't necessarilymean that one of the player characters is going to die, forexample. If it isn't absolute, the characters will be able toduck i t . . . if they figure out the prediction in time andhow to avoid it.

• •

• • •

• • • •

• • • • •

A specific question chat can be answeredquickly: "Is this bridge safe?" is okay. "How arethe bad guys are going to attack us?" is not.A query that is somewhat detailed but couldbe answered using publicly ava i l ab l e knowl-edge, if you knew where and how to look andhad the time.A detailed question that requires informationor details that have been hidden by time,distance or deliberate obfuscation but can stillbe unearthed with effort.A very detailed question or one that wouldneed access to information that has been lostto time, is very distant or has been activelyguarded and hidden.No question is too complex, no informat iontoo obscure.

Price of FailureProphecies are fraught with mischance. A failed roll

could mean something as simple as "Future cloudy, try againlater" or a false reading, A botched roll indicates an omenthat is dangerously flawed or inaccurate in some fashion. Forexample, telling someone rhat the guards are unwary andslothful when, in fact they are an elite force of highly trainedprofessionals.

Enchantment(Ritual Only)

Enchantment is the art of creating (minor) magicalTalismans. An enchanter imbues each of her creations witha small part of her essence and spends much of her timelocked up in a workshop crafting each new piece, trackingdown esoteric and mundane ingredients, putting out fires,researching new procedures and figuring out why the copperwire in the iron mixture didn't help the blade's temper. Forthose with the time and patience, though, Enchantmentprovides the ab i l i ty to forge useful magical tools — mostespecially, devices that store magical energy for later use orempowered to function on their own, usable by anyone.

Creating a Talisman first takes talent; an enchantermust usually handcraft the object to be enchanted, whetherit is a blade, a ring, a pair of shoes or a book. (This is notalways the case, especially with items that have a closepersonal at tachment to the enchanter.) Many enchanterschoose one field of study and specialise in it, creating piecesof art for sale when they aren't working on pieces to beenchanted (after all, a sorcerer has to earn a living some-how). Others develop enough skil l to create serviceabletools that can be enchanted in a number of different Crafts,relying on their magical abilities to suffice where theircraftsmanship does not. Every r i tual , therefore, starts with aCrafts roll to determine the quality of the item being en-chanted; an exceptional result on this test may make theactual Enchantment easier. Depending on what is beingmade, this may take anywhere from a day or so, to months ofcareful crafting.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 71

* A very simple question (can be answered withYes or No... but don't expect to get that simplean answer!).

Question

The next part of the process is the Enchantment itself.This normally takes one to three days per level of the item,depending on the Tradition of the enchanter and the par-ticulars of the Enchantment (the more complex theEnchantment, in terms of who can use it, how many times itcan be used, and when it can be used, the longer the initialwork). At the end of this period, make an Intelligence +Occult roll (difficulty 4 + level of the Enchantment), spenda point of Willpower and the Enchantment is completed.

Enchantments are never a matter of numbers and cre-ation systems; they should flow from the story and roleplaying,not die rolls. While we've given some examples, a smartenchantress can come up with many more.

• Minor items that have a very limited utility and verylimited effects that will never be seen as magical by any whodon't know what to look for. They might add one (or, lessfrequently, two) dots to an Attribute or Ability, grant abonus to an attack or skill (nevermore than a +1) or someother boon,

— An army surplus jacket that adds two dots to Arcanewhenever the character is in a crowd,

— A custom made handgun that subtracts 1 from thedifficulty of all aimed shots made with the weapon (or,alternatively, subtracts 1 from the difficulty of all wild shotsmade with it).

- A small stuffed animal that brings restful sleep, nomatter the recipient's state of mind or state of intoxication;anyone sleeping in the same bed as the toy will sleep like a baby.

— A small medallion with a chrysoprase in the middleof it, carved in the shape of a hawk's eye, carried on a finesilver chain. Once a day, when rubbed, it will give the wearerthe vision of a hawk for the space of one scene. (This adds 2dice to Perception, for purposes of seeing things at longdistance or noticing movement).

• • A more powerful version of a Talisman that could bepreviously made (adding +2 to an Ability or Attribute or +2to some task), or a Talisman capable of changing reality insome subtle but more noticeable or magical fashion.

SYST0T1Roll:

Cost:Modifiers:

Time:

Duration:

Intelligence + Occult (Intelligence + Sciencefor Technosorcerers)1 Willpower- 1 Difficulty for Enchantments that have beenmastered1 -3 days per level of the Enchantment, plus thetime to craft the itemSee following

72 SORCERER

— A liquor flask that, when carried in a breast pocket,will unerringly attract the first bullet that would hit thecarrier to itself. This provides three dice of lethal soak.After, the flask is useless. (Apparently this Enchantmentwas very popular with Allied sorcerers during World War I I ) .

— A handful of bullets (1 per success rolled on theEnchantment) that do an additional 2 dice of damage towhatever they hit.

— A silver ankle bracelet, with many hanging baubles,that gives the wearer an additional two levels in Dancingwhenever it is worn, if it is plainly visible.

• • • These items perform functions that are obviouslymagical to those looking for such things and that will beconsidered very weird by those who aren't.

— A pair of running shoes that doubles the runningspeed of the wearer. This ability only works when the weareris trying to evade pursuit,

—An amulet inscribed with arcane symbols, on a leatherthong. When grasped, it will act as a personal ward againstsorcery, up to three times a day (number of dice subtractedequals the successes rolled on the Enchantment). This amuletmust be kept in a jewelry box carved out of a single crystal whennot worn or the Enchantment will fade (one success per night)until it becomes a simple piece of jewelry.

— A sword with a core of liquid mercury that doesaggravated damage against the Risen and lethal damage towraiths (if they can be seen; it provides no inherent abilityto see the Restless Dead). A priest must bless the sword everyfortnight, or the magic fails.

• • • • Talismans of this power can defy reality to a largedegree, as long as they work withincertain restrictions. Theycan increase Attributes and Abilities past normal human

Technosorcerers and EnchantmentPerhaps more than any other Path (saving only

Advanced Chemistry), Enchantment (whichtechnosorcerers know by a whole host of other names:material sciences, advanced ballistics, applied high-en-ergy physics, etc.) is the forte of the technosorcerer.Working as it does with physical objects and definableeffects, Enchantment is a Path that many technosorcererswill have at least a basic understanding of. Technologybased Enchantments work slightly differently; manysimple enchanted items can be used by anyone whoknows how to use a normal version of the device (anunnaturally accurate handgun doesn't normally care whowields it). Given time, almost anyone can be trained inthe use of even the most advanced technology basedTalisman (called a Device).

Powerful Devices are almost as likely to fail in thepublic view as the most powerful of Talismans based onmystical principals are, for reasons that are still unknown.Technosorcery is something that works best when itworks in the shadows, just as i ts counterpart is.

maximums, duplicate low-level supernatural abilities (nomore than the second dot of Disciplines, Gifts, etc.) andotherwise work wonders.

— The fabled Heartseeker — a stiletto that aims unerr-ingly for the heart when drawn and used in rage. This inflictsStrength + 5 dice of lethal damage, and the dagger may bethrown. It must be bathed in the blood of those it has killedafter each combat or lose its potency.

—A solid silver torc that, when worn, grants the wearersuperhuman Strength. The wearer's Strength rises to 5 whenthe tote is worn. In addition, a number of times per day equalto the successes rolled on the Enchantment, the wearer mayboost his Strength past normal, gaining 3 automatic suc-cesses on all task rolls involving Strength (these successesare added directly to damage rolled, etc.). The torc must bekept in view of the moon whenever it is not worn, if themoon is visible.

- The skull of a long-dead wizard, which can be used tocontact him for assistance. The sorcerer using this Talismanmust donate a pint of blood and can ask the wizard as manyquestions as successes rolled on the Enchantment. These donot have to be yes/no questions, and follow up questions onthe same immediate topic are allowed without using up aquestion (the Storyteller is the final arbiter of what is or isn'ta question). This Talisman can only be used during the newmoon, and the sorcerer must make a Willpower test (diffi-culty equal to the number of times the Talisman has beenused + 4) or the skull crumbles to pieces after the finalquestion is asked.

— A byrnie of silvered mail that converts up to 4 diceof lethal damage taken in a turn of combat into bashingdamage. Each time this ability is used, a few more links fallout of the coat, until, eventually, it falls apart, unusable. Themail can never be cleaned or repaired, or it automaticallyloses its abilities.

Alchemy vs. EnchantmentOn the surface, Alchemy and Enchantment would

appear to be almost the same Art, and in fact, many who studyone Art have at least some knowledge in the other Path as well.At a fundamental level, however, they are very different.Alchemical elixirs can be used by anyone but have a definitelife span; usually, this is measured in months or even years, buteventually most alchemical substances (other than mysticalalloys or some other materials made through Alchemy) willdecay into uselessness. Talismans created with the Path ofEnchantment retain their power for decades, or even centuriesin some cases, and, even once the power has left them, stillretain some level of inherent mystic "otherness" that thoseknowledgeable in the Arts will be able to detect. With someresearch, almost all Talismans can be traced back to theircreators. Where a long-dead alchemist is known only by thebody of research he leaves behind (if any), an enchanter'slegacy is wrapped up in every Talisman he ever created.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 73

• •••• Items made with this level of skill are almostmythic; their powers are sometimes subtle, sometimes bla-tant and always unpredictable. When they work, they canperform minor miracles,

— A money pouch that will always have five dollars inquarters (or 6 Canadian loonies or three pounds sterling orwhatever — always in small, but not annoying, sums) in it, aslong as at least one quarter is left in the pouch. It can only bedrawn from four times a day, or it will lose its power forever.

— An amulet that, when worn, renders the user almostimmune to any kind of physical harm (granting the user five diceof lethal soak that is also usable against aggravated damage).Every time this ability is used, it subtracts five years from theuser's life. The user evinces no outward change, but when hefinally expires, he will appear to be an old man internally.

— An amulet that wards the user against all magicaldetection. The amulet adds 4 successes to the numberrequired to find the user with any kind of magical ability(Auspex, Divination, Sphere magic, etc.). The sorcerer willbe presented with a different riddle, puzzle or other enigmashe must solve before the amulet will activate. Once acti-vated, the amulet will be effective for a number of weeksequal to the number of successes rolled on the Enchantment.

— An animated servant. This might be the classicalgolem from Jewish mythology, a homunculusor some kind ofrobot. A servant like this is created like a character, but hasonly 10 points to spend on Attributes and 7 to spend onAbilities. It has human senses, Health levels equal to anormal human (but does not suffer wound penalties) anddoes not need to eat or sleep, though technologically basedservants will usually need recharging.

• ••••• Talismans of this potency are more rumor andmyth than they are quantifiable fact. If items of this powerstill exist or anyone can still make them, they would becapable of feats that would be impressive even to the mostpowerful sorcerer.

RitualsAlthough this entire Path is composed of various rituals, there

are some that are more standardized than others. These include:

74 SORCERER

Eldritch Mark (•)The sorcerer scribes a symbol or mark into an object or

onto the forehead of an individual. This mark then fadesfrom view, but any student of the mystic Arts who looks atthe object or individual will be able to discern the mark andwill know the name of the sorcerer who marked it. This ritualtakes five minutes to cast and has no cost in Willpower.

Enhance Craftsmanship (• •)The enchanter uses his power to enhance the craftsman-

ship of an object he is making (something enhanced in thisfashion can not thereafter be further enchanted). Thus, he canforge a blade that will never break, knit a sweater that will neverunravel or ensorcel a mirror so that it will never crack.

An object made in this fashion is not inherently magical inany way, but an alchemist or another enchanter can discern themethods used to enhance it with a Perception + Occult task(difficulty 6). This ritual takes as long to cast as it takes to makethe object (15 to 20 minutes for something diat is beingensorceled after the fact) and costs no Willpower.

Price of FailureThe best a sorcerer can hope for on a failure is that his time

and effort will be wasted. It is more likely that the sorcerer willend up with a cursed item, one that has some side effect that wasnot anticipated, an accident that blows the workshop to bits orworse. Botching a creation roll is never a good idea: Enchantershave been engulfed in conflagrations or have simply disap-peared, along with their workshops.

FascinationCall it bewitching, call it willbinding, speak of love

philters and glamours, speak of presence and awe. In the end,what you are talking about is a sorcerer's ability to fascinate— to compel a subject to listen to what she says, to force an

attraction that would not otherwise be there. A master ofthis Path can instill loyalty, lust, confidence, faith and lovein those she comes in contact with — in some cases, so muchso that the sorcerer is bedeviled with followers so fanaticalthat they are willing to kill for the object of their affection.

Sometimes utter Fascination is not at all what thesorcerer wants. Stories abound of sorcerer and victim tied upin a web of conflicting loyalties and obsessions, with tragedythe nigh-inevitable result. Even worse is when a third partyis brought into the mixture; some seek out sorcerers skilledin this Path, hoping to gain assistance in attracting the eyeof some desired paramour.

But not all tales of this Path end in tragedy. Manysorcerers, careful to use only enough power to get what theywant and no more, make a decent living in the media, asentertainers, as sales representatives and in almost any otherjob that requires constant contact with people.

Fascination works with the Social Traits; exactly whichone depends on the circumstances. Normally, the client'smost impressive Attribute will be enhanced; a good lookingwoman will appear stunning (Appearance), a smooth opera-tor will become impossibly slick (Manipulation), and someone

Talismans vs. TalismansThe difference between a Talisman created by a

sorcerer using the Path of Enchantment and one createdby a mage using Sphere magic isn't always as clear as onemight think. Both will detect as magical to those capableof sensing such things, and both may well have similar oreven identical effects. To a lay person, there really is nodifference; even some mages and experienced sorcerersmay be unable to tell the difference.

There are, however, a couple of differences. Sorcerybased Talismans are almost always single-function items;they do one thing and one thing only. Wonders based onSphere magic are more likely to be multi-purpose ( a l -though many are not).

with a powerful personality will become positively magnetic(Charisma). A sorcerer can choose to enhance any of theSocial Attributes, however; an already charismatic wizardmight choose to use Fascination to shore up his Appearance.

A sorcerer can inspire more than simple attraction orinterest with Fascination; although it is more difficult, shecan inspire loyalty, trust, camaraderie, faith, confidence orsome other (generally positive) emotional link.

A subject has no real resistance to this ability, although subjectswith a high Willpower are less likely to be affected. Some people areimmune to Fascination altogether, however; anyone with Iron Willor similar advantages can ignore a Fascination (except from a masterof the Path, at the Storyteller's discretion).

Any attempt to order a subject to do something that he wouldnot normally do (kill that man over there, jump off a bridge) allowshim a Willpower check (difficulty 4 + Path level). Each success hescores reduces the sorcerer's hold on him by one level. How often thesubject makes these checks depends, in large part, on his personality;a strong-willed, confident person might make them rather regularly,while a weak-willed person with low self-esteem would be willing toput up with quite a bit. When a Fascination ends, it may taper off(allowing emotions and bonds built up in the intervening time totake hold), or it may snap, leaving the subject confused andbewildered.

Those who possess similar mind-influencing powers (vampiricDominate and Presence, psychic abilities, the Sphere of Mind, etc.)can also typically ignore attempts to influence them with this Path.Innately mystical creatures (shapeshifters, the fae, etc,) can countera spell with their own power if they choose to (spending theirmystical power sources as appropriate; each point spent reduces thelevel of effect by one). The blood bond of vampires is not sufficient,in and of itself, to counter Fascination, but the bond remains ineffect; any demands that run counter to the bond will automaticallycall for a Willpower check.

Students of this Path can sometimes recognize its tricks beingused by others: Often times, they even have a small measure ofresistance to its effects. When someone uses this Padi, or a similarpower (vampiric Dominate and Presence, certain Mind effects,etc.), the willbinder can make a Wits + Fascination roll (difficulty7-9, at the Storyteller's discretion). He must score at least as manysuccesses as the caster to detect anything is amiss. This gives thewillbinder a +1 on all Willpower checks to resist any effects aimedat him (knowing is half the battle.... and an additional +1 to resistfor every 2 successes scored over and above those needed to detectthe use in the first place.

System

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 75

Roll:Cost:Modifiers:

Time:Duration:

(Social Attribute) + OccultNone+ 1 difficulty for emotions other than attrac-tion or interest+1 difficulty if subject's Willpower is 5 or greater.One turn per level of effectSee following

Price of FailureA simple failure means, at worst, having a bit of egg on your

face, in most cases. Botches can be big trouble, however (as isoften the case with sorcery). A spell could backfire making youas unattractive and unimpressive as it was supposed to make youimpressive and attractive (reverse the adds to Social dice poolsto penalties). Your meddling with other peoples emotions canhave awful consequences; overuse of this ability can result in theemotional equivalent of a lobotomy, fierce fits of jealousy or justas fierce protective urges. And in extreme versions of the lattertwo problems, the subject will do anything to keep you safe/keepothers from having you... anything.

•

• •

• ••

• •••

• • • ••

• •••• •

A short while; a few minutes or so.One sceneA day or twoA couple of weeksSeveral monthsIndefinitely

Duration

•

• •• ••

• • • •

• • • • •

• • • • • •

One personTwo peopleA small group (less than 10)A party of up to 50 people or soA crowd of people: hundredsA stadium full of people: thousands

Number

•

• •

• ••

• •••

• ••••

• •••• •

Minor: In a crowd, you are noticed, and individu-als will find you interesting. Add 1 die to yourSocial dice pools.Stirring: You aren't the center of the party, butyou are being listened to. An individual willmake it a point to hang out with you. Add 2 diceto your Social dice pools.Life of the Party: Of course you threw this party,didn't you? A subject will go out of his way foryou. Add 3 dice.Major: You are throwing a party, aren't you?What you do, others pay attention to. Individualswill sacrifice quite a bit to earn your approval.Add 4 dice.Trendsetter: If you jumped off a bridge, morethan a few people would follow. Your influence isunmistakable. An individual will do almost any-thing you ask him to, even kill or die. Add 5 dice.Your influence is legendary, when you want it tobe. An individual is utterly besmitten of you, avirtual (and possibly literal) slave, and willing todo anything you command. Add 6 dice to yourSocial dice pools.

AspectsLevel of Influence

DurationThis is how long the effect will last; whether it coils, strikes

and disappears or hangs about to discomfit the recipient formonths or even years. At their most powerful, effects can last forgenerations, striking at a specific target in each generation (firstborn son, for example).• One shot. The effect waits for an

opportune moment, wreaks its vengeance (orbenefits) and then dissipates.

• • The effect lasts a day, inconveniencing t h etarget whenever possible.

• • • The effect lasts for a week or more (up tothree), helping the target when appropriate.

• • • • The blessing (or curse) lasts for several months.••••• The curse affects the target for years,

blighting his very existence.• •••• • "...And unto the seventh generation shall the

family of Hedley-Smythe be cursed with mad-ness, and terror shall follow them al! their days!"

SeverityThe severity of a Fortune effect depends in large part on

what the sorcerer wants to do, but the specifics of the effectare never completely under the control of the sorcerer; thecaster can suggest, but in the end, every curse or blessingtakes its own way.

• A brief inconvenience, or a minor weal; d r o p p i n gsomething, saying something utterly stupid (or perfectly bril-liant), smashing your shin into the table, catching a bus at justthe right moment.

•• Something that results in a lasting inconvenience orinjury or some minor ad vantage. Sprains, bad cases of the flu (orother annoying, but not life threatening, diseases), breakingsomething difficult to replace and committing some major fauxpas are all possible curses, while blessings might conveysome minor advantage in battle, render the target im-mune to some sickness or misfortune or prevent some difficultythat might hinder her path.

• • • A serious, but not normally life-threatening injury orillness, or some permanent social setback. This kind of curseshould be a major setback for the short-term goals of the target.As a blessing, this level conveys some major advantage. Anadditional die in combat dice pools, continuing minor luck withdice (or women) or the good fortune to always get the person atthe DMV who actually wants to help (and always getting therewhen there aren't many people in line) are all possible effects.

••••A permanent, debilitating injury or illness, or amajor turn of events socially or financially. Bankruptcy, spinalinjuries, psychosis, blindness, an accountant taking off forBarbados with all of your savings and indictment on tax evasionare all possibilities. Blessings of this magnitude include thingslike winning the lottery, excellence in battle in some criticalfight or overcoming incredible odds against some major socialendeavors.

FortuneFortuna, both Buona and Mala, flows from the hands of the

sorcerer who studies this path. By his will, probabilities alter,events realign themselves, and his target's future is changed.The superstitious ascribed this power to all witches (untrue),and call it the Evil Eye, scientists speak of altering probabilitiesand chaos math, and priests calls it the Hand of God, but inevery case, in the end, the effects are only partly in the hands ofthe sorcerer. Some mages look on this as being a set of interre-lated effects linked closely with a rudimentary understanding ofthe Entropy Sphere. Sorcerers gifted in the Path just smile, nodand continue on their lucky way.

Supernatural beings can be cursed but get to resist theeffect, if they are aware of it, with a Willpower check (difficulty= 4 + the magician's Path rating). Most curses will need only asingle success, but very powerful or long-lasting curses canrequire more in order to be removed completely. Short cursesnormally won't be discovered unless they are announced aheadof time; a skilled user of Entropy or Prime might detect a curselooming over someone, or someone with Auspex might see it intheir aura, however. A character's Arcane rating subtracts fromthe total successes scored on a one for one ratio (and could wellcause the curse to fail utterly).

SystemRoll:

Cost:Modifiers:

Duration:

Manipulation + Intimidation (Manipulation +Mathematics for Technosorcerers)One Willpower-1 Difficulty if some sorcerer has some itemclosely linked with the targetSee below

AspectsTargetIn general, the target must be some specific individual or

group of individuals but does not need to be specifically named(So, for example, the target might be "Jimmy Smith, who stolemy essay" or "that son of a bitch who just cut me off," but not"everyone who hates me"). The more dots in this aspect of thecurse, the more people ir can affect, and the less specific thetargeting needs to be.•

• •

• • •

• • • •

• • •••

• • • • • •

One specific, named, targetTwo targets, or one poorly defined one.A small group (no more than four) of closelylinked individuals (a clique or family)A midsize group of people with some kindof relationship (an extended family, a footballteam, etc.)A large group of people (no more than 100): allof the patrons of a particular bar, a small com-pany, etc.An entire town or corporation or military unit(like a battalion).

• • • • • Normally, a death curse (and usually not a pleasantdeath; decapitation, wasting diseases, mangling car accidentsand worse), although some incredible turn of events mightfulfill a curse of this magnitude. Blessings at this level of powerinvolve cheating some inescapable death or misfortune: a lastminute reprieve from the governor, landing in the only ponddeep enough to cushion your fall after a parachute failure orbeing saved by the Queen's Gurkha Rifles just as the cultists startto lower you into the boiling lava are all possibilities.

• •••• • If there is a fate worse than death or a way tocheat death forever, it would take a curse or blessing of thispower to do it.

Example: Rachel stares daggers at that stupid jock that turnedher down. Who does he think he is, anyway? What, isn't she prettyenough? Fine. She'll show him, dammit! Muttering a quick enchant-ment she learned in a book found in the back of the library, she finishesit with a curse and savagely stabs her athame into his footprint in thedirt near the stadium. She is lucky enough to be watching later that daywhen, showing off, he back/lips off the bed of his friend's pickup truck,slips and smashes his knee into the pavement, cracking it. So much forthe rest of the football season.

Rachel has 3 dots in the Path of Fortune, her Manipulationis 3, and she has an Intimidation of 2. She sets up her spell asfollows — Target: level one (she knows the name of the "dumb"jock in question). Duration: basic (she isn't quite bitter enough towant him seriously put out for any length of time.) and Severity:level three (she is bitter enough to want him hurt, however). Sinceshe's assigning each aspect, she needs three successes (one for eachaspect). If she'd wanted to push the severity even higher, she'dhave needed additional successes.

The Path of Fortune benefits from teamwork in a fashionunlike any other Path; each assistant who is successful in a skillcheck not only reduces the difficulty for the lead sorcerer by 1,but also adds a single success to the total pool for paying foraspects. In addition, every three assistants increases the effec-tive knowledge of the Path by one, allowing the group to castmore powerful curses or blessings.

Example: A curse performed, by five members, all of whom havethe Path of Fortune (with the leader having a rating 0/3) would havean effective Path knowledge of 4 to determine what level of aspectcouid be used, and would gain up to 4 extra successes to spend onaspects, in addition to reducing the difficulty by up to -4.

RitualDeath Curse (•)A magician skilled in the Path of Fortune may invoke a

Death's Curse. The magician spends all of her permanentWillpower, adds it to her dots and then spends them as she likesin a final curse (or blessing, although this is much less common),just as if they were automatic successes. For the purposes of thisspell alone, the magician can buy aspects two dots higher thanthey would normally have access to; while a lesser magicianmight only be able to inconvenience a single person, a powerfulone could lay waste to an entire family or wither an entire smalltown! Once this effect is cast, the character then falters andquickly dies, burned out by her rage or taken by her weal.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 77

Price of FailureMessing with destiny and the future is never something to

be undertaken lightly. A failure on the dice roll results innothing happening (of course, if the target is unlucky enough,the caster may not be able to tell if the curse took effect or not!).A botched curse might boomerang back onto the caster, as thehatred-fueled power feeds back into the source of the bile, ratherthan the target. Alternatively, it may twist itself into a perversesort of blessing, something that at first appears to be a curse butis, instead, beneficial to the target in a strange sort of way. (Thisis especially appropriate if the caster's hatred of the target is notpure and savage enough — half-hearted curses are better leftalone, especially powerful ones.)

Botched blessings can be just as bad, if not worse, Abotched blessing might twist itself into a curse (especially withvery powerful blessings), targeted either on the caster or on thetarget (once again, blessings where the motives of the caster atenot pure are most likely to do this). Mote commonly, however,the blessing takes effect but in such a way that it might as wellbe a curse. This kind of monkey's paw can be particularlydevastating. A blessing for long life might twist itself intoimmortality itself... but immortality without vitality is a ptisonsuitable only for the most evil.

A sorcerer can use the Path of Fortune upon herself if shewishes but runs a terrible risk. Any Botched roll means that thesorcerer will suffer the full effects of the worst kinds of backfirethat she might accidentally inflict upon others. Worse, whilethe sorcerer can try and unweave even a botched curse orblessing upon another, she is totally incapable of lifting orunweaving an effect that she casts upon herself. Since a sorcerermay not know the full impact of her casting for some time, theStoryteller should roll the dice for any use of this Path she worksupon herself.

HealingSince the earliest days, those whose touch could heal have

been held in highest regard. The laying on of hands by a saint,the witch's poultice, the intercession of a houngan with Legbaand the caring touch of a general practitioner have all been seenas a kind of miracle. When practitioners of this Path areinvolved, this appellation it is not far from the truth.

The Path of Healing takes time; there are no miraculouscures, no instant regeneration of wounds and no sudden recov-

eries from fatal illnesses. Even the most experienced healer canonly force the body to do so much; a healer normally works byaccelerating the body's natural processes, by helping it do whatit would normally do anyway, only faster and better. Worse, useof this Path saps the user; overuse can lead to burnout and evendeath. A master of the Path can bring someone back even fromdeath's door... but the cost is often more than he can bear.

Although not absolutely necessary for the use of this Path,most healers have at least some knowledge of medicine, al-though this may not be traditional Western medicine:Acupuncture, homeopathy, herbalism or knowledge of whichspirits to propitiate and which to exorcise can all be effective toa healer who believes.

The Path of Healing can relieve pain, cure diseases, speedrecovery from injuries (and heal some injuries outright), even restoresight to the blind. It cannot, however, do anything to alleviateaggravated injuries... fire, Pattern magic and acid alt do things soheinous to the human (or inhuman) body that it cannot be healedin this fashion. For reasons that should be obvious, the Path ofHealing cannot be used on the dead (or undead).

A sorcerer may attempt to heal any given injury, disease orcondition once; if she fails or achieves only a limited success (dueto skill), she may not go back and attempt to improve thesituation later,

System

Success

•• •• • •• • • •• • • • •• • • • • •

Painnoneminor (headache)moderate (migraine)major (groin kick)extreme (gut stab)incredible (amputation)NA

Toxinsnoneantisepticrating 1Rating 2Rating 3Rating 4-5Rating 6-7

Bashingnoneminor bruises1 level fixedheal 25%2 levels fixedheal 90%3 levels fixed

Lethalnonenonestabilenoneheal 50%eyesight, hearingheal instantly

Othernonenonenone

minor debilities

major neurological

78 SORCERER

You may spend as many successes as needed (including none) on any or all of the following aspects:

ASPECTS

Roll:Cost:Modifiers:

Duration:

Manipulation + IntuitionOne Willpower per injury or disease-1 Difficulty if Medicine, or appropriate Lore isequal to or higher than rating in Path.Permanent

PainYou can relieve the pain of an injury, even if you cannot

heal the injury itself. With 4 successes, you can reduce the taskpenalties from injuries by -2; with 5 successes, the patient canignore most penalties that don't involve actual amputations —and even then, the penalties are because of the missing limb, notbecause it hurts.

Toxins and DiseasesWith a single success, you can virtually guarantee that a

patient will not suffer from secondary infections or problems as

a result of disease. With greater numbers of successes, you cancure diseases or counteract exposure to poisons of a ToxinRating equal to or below the rating listed and alleviate thesymptoms of diseases one level higher (the disease is still presentand could still kill the patient, but the patient gets +1 on allsurvival rolls and at least won't be miserable as he dies...).Recovery time is dependent on the virulence of the disease orpoison, how massive the exposure was and how long die patienthas already been afflicted.

Bashing DamageThe healer can close up minor contusions, scrapes, etc.

with but a single success; the injuries fade over the course of 10-15 minutes or so. For every 2 successes spent on dealing withbashing damage, the healer can reduce the damage taken by onelevel (from Wounded to Injured, for example). Bashing damagethat has been converted to lethal damage cannot be cured inthis fashion.

Lethal DamageTwo successes lets the healer stabilize even a critically

wounded patient; the patient will not regain any levels ofHealth but will be safe to transport and may even be able tomove about under her own power, at least a little (dependent oninjuries). More successes do not actually remove health levels ofdamage but do cause the patient to heal at an accelerated rate;this is in addition to any benefits gained by regular medical care(so an Incapacitated patient who is being treated in a hospitalby a doctor who also happens to be a healer who scores 4successes on healing lethal damage would recover completelyfrom her injuries in 51 days, instead of 102 (or the almost a yearthat it would take with no medical attention or healerintervention).

Other Injuries or DebilitiesWith great effort (a minimum of 4 successes needed), a

healer can correct congenital defects or problems incurred afterbirth. Many problems are beyond the ability of even the greatesthealers to cure (they cannot regenerate limbs, etc.), but theycan cure bad vision or tone deafness (with 5 successes) and evensome neurological conditions (6 successes). Exactly how manysuccesses are needed, and what is beyond the scope of the healer,is up to the Storyteller.

RITUALSHealing Sleep (•)The healer can place a patient in a deep, restful sleep that

relaxes and revitalizes. The patient wakes from even afew hoursof sleep refreshed and alert, with a clarity of thought andpurpose. In game terms, the player rolls Manipulation + Intu-it ion versus a difficulty of 6; if more than one success is rolled,the (willing) patient falls into a deep slumber. This ritualnormally results in 9 hours of sleep; subtract one hour for eachadditional success. At the end of that sleep, the patient awakensrevitalized; all bashing damage is healed, and the patient regainsa point of Willpower.

Mike's Cure-All (••)Although the exact version referenced here appears todate

from the Chicago speakeasies of the 1920s, versions of this ritualhave been around for centuries. When cast on a patient who hasbeen drugged, poisoned or merely over-indulged, the patientimmediately begins to flush any toxins in their system; depend-ing on the length of time it's been since the toxins wereintroduced and the method of introduction, they might beexpelled through sweat, vomiting or diarrhea, tears or somecombination. This is rarely pleasant for the patient, but in theend, the toxins are removed, and any effects they may have onthe patient are negated (already existing damage will not behealed, but any side effects or further damage will cease). Thedifficulty of this ritual is 6, and the healer must score moresuccesses than the Toxin Rating of the drug or poison that thepatient has in their system (or the highest Toxin Rating, in caseof multiple drugs or poisons). This ritual can be cast as anextended task, and while it will flush out even alchemicalconcoctions and poisons, it does not affect vitae in any way; aghoul will not have the vitae in his bloodstream forciblyremoved, nor does it remove a blood bond.

Wakey-Wakey (••)With this ritual, a Sorcerer can revive anyone from even

the deepest sleep. Even magically induced slumber can bebroken with this ritual, although the caster must generate moresuccesses than the originator of the sleeping spell did. The basedifficulty of this ritual is 6; normally only a single success isneeded, although someone who is drugged, is a naturally deepsleeper or is incredibly exhausted may require more successes.This ritual costs one Willpower to cast.

Revive (••••••)The pinnacle of understanding in the Path of Healing is the

ability to bring back one that has traveled beyond Death's Door.Even masters of the Path can only call back those who have veryrecently died, and survival is never assured; more than once, apatient has been revived, only to succumb once again to hisinjuries. The healer burns two permanent Willpower and rollsagainst a difficulty of 9; she must achieve at least 3successes, plus1 additional success for every three minutes the patient has beendead (not counting the length of time the ritual takes to cast).If successful, the healer loses any remaining Willpower they mayhave (these points, unlike the initial two, can be regained overtime), is physically exhausted and at -2 dice on all dice pools forthe next week. The patient, while revived, still suffers fromwhatever ills killed him in the first place; if immediate medicalattention is not forthcoming, he will quickly die once again.

Price of FailureA simple failure merely means that the healer has no effect;

she cannot work on this injury or disease for whatever reason.A botch, however, can be particularly horrifying in the case ofthis Path; stories tell of tissue surrounding a wound goinghypercancerous, orifices like the mouth, nostrils, etc. suddenly"healing" themselves over, diseases going berserk and worse.The healer can also backlash the injuries of the patient ontoherself or subject herself to the poisons or diseases she was tryingto cure.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 79

Thought by many to be at least tainted by darkness, if notoutright of evil origins, the Path of Hellfire taps into the deepest,most primal, and destructive of forces. Legends ascribe thebeginnings of this power to the infernal realms, pacts withmalevolent elemental spirits, and bargains with beings betterleft alone. The master of the path of hellfire can demand, andreceive respect; he will also receive suspicion and fear, whetherhe demands them or not.

A student of the Path of Hellfire learns to summon andcontrol powerful elemental attacks; blasts of lightning, bolts offire or mystic energy, clouds of poison gas or other deadly effects.Unsubtle and direct, these powers, utilized properly, can oblit-erate even the most deadly of foes, in the hands of a master.Students of this Path should remember that a little knowledgecan be a dangerous thing; they are not immune to the effects oftheir own powers, and using this power in combat normallyrequires planning beforehand.

Hitting a target with a blast of Hellfire requires a successfulDexterity + Melee roll (difficulty 7). Striking at an area lowersthe difficulty to 5 but allows those in the area a chance to escape(see Dodging and Resistance in Mage Revised, p, 152).

System

•••••• Approximately 50 square feet

Special EffectsAll special effects are optional and, in fact, must be

purchased (using freebie or experience points; cost is equal tothe cost in successes +1), as each is a separate study in destruc-tion. Each could be considered a separate destructive Path, ofwhich Hellfire is simply a generic sampling.

• • Earthquake: The ground cracksopen, engulfs the targetand crushes him before subsiding. The target will then have todig his way free (Strength roll against difficulty 6, need as manysuccesses as health levels suffered, extended task). Lethal dam-age only.

• • Lightning: A bolt of electricity fries the target. If thetarget is touching any conductive material (water, a suit of platearmor, wires, etc.) and anyone else is touching that material,they suffer the same damage the target did. Can be aggravated.

• Decay: Does no damage to living targets, but anythingthey are wearing or carrying begins to rust, decay, warp andgenerally fall apart ar a high rare. Within 2-3 turns, anythingthey are wearing or holding will be junk. This effect destroysthree pounds of material per point of damage that would bescored (some substances and anything that has been enchanted,will be resistant to this effect).

• Dust Storm: A blinding, stinging cloud of fine dust whirlsthrough the area, scouring everyone in the area. Must be boughtwith at least three dots worth of area. All beings in the path ofthis cloud are blinded for the duration of the cloud (one turn perhealth level of damage inflicted).

• Sleet: A blast of freezing water and ice cuts across thetarget. Not only does this inflict damage, but it can also obscurevision (at least momentarily), and the ground surrounding thetarget is at least wet and may be rather slippery. Lethal damageonly,

• Smoke: A thick cloud of poisonous smoke billows forthfrom the caster, enveloping the area. (This effect must bebought with an Area of at least 3 dots). Everyone within thecloud takes one health level of lethal damage per turn, unlessthey have some kind of protection (a gas mask buys 2 turns ofexposure but is then rendered useless) or do not need to breath(like vampires). Vision is totally obscured (even advancedvision, like thermographic or night vision) while within thecloud. Can be aggravared.

• • Tanglewood: nearby plants lash out, throwing storms ofsplinters, thorns, etc. at the target. A truly lucky magician mightbe able to stake a vampire this way, but don't count on it(difficulty 9, at least 5 successes needed). If the target is actuallystanding among any kind of dense undergrowth, the plants willenvelop him (extended Strength roll against difficulty 7, needas many successes as health levels suffered to break free). Lethaldamage only.

••••Drowning Tide: This effect requires a large body of waterto work (an Olympic size swimming pool is sufficient). A suddenwave or undercurrent reaches up and drags the target under thesurface, smashing her body and causing drowning damage. (See therules on drowning in Mage Revised, p. 249). To escape, the targetwill have to get to "shore'' and drag himself out of the water (Strength

Roll:Cost:Duration:

Manipulation + OccultOne WillpowerInstant

AspectsDamageTwo dice of lethal damage per success spent. Although the

basic form of Hellfire is a gout of flame, Hellfire does not doaggravated damage by default: for aggravated damage, spend 2additional successes (some special effects preclude aggravateddamage). Total number of successes spent on damage (includ-ing to buy aggravared damage) cannot exceed the dots the casterhas in Hellfire.

Range•

• •

• • •

• • • •

• ••• •

••••••

Touch only. The sorcerer must make a successfulBrawl attack in order to hit his target and deliverdamage (which is in addition to normal meleedamage.Less than 10 feetLess than 25 feetAbout 50 feetAny target within 150 feetA target within 200 yards or so

Area•

• •

• • •

• • • •

• • • • •

A single targetA small area; 3 square feet or soNo more than a couple of square yards or so10 square feet (which can be arranged as a wall,circle or whatever).20 square feet

80 SORCERER

Hellfire

roll, difficulty 8, number of successes needed depends on how longhe is in the water and how far he is from safety, but at least 2 successesnecessary). This continues until the target escapes or dies. Drowningdamage only.

RITUALSFire's Weal (••)This ritual allows the user (or whomever they cast the ritual

upon) to resist natural flames, and provides at least someprotection against even mystical flames. Roll (Manipulation +Occult) against a difficulty of 7; if you score more than 2successes, you can soak fire damage as if it were bashing damage,instead of aggravated; more successes reduce the soak numberneeded (so 5 successes on this check would result in therecipient being able to soak fire damage as bashing, with a -3 onthe soak difficulty). This ritual costs one Willpower and lastsone scene.

Hellblade(••)This simple ritual attunes a weapon (normally some kind

of bladed weapon, often a dagger or sword) to the powers of thisPath. By spending one Willpower, you may engulf the blade inmystical fires; while burning, the weapon does aggravateddamage and does2 additional dice of damage. These fires last forup to one scene, unless the magician tries to hand the weaponto another user, at which point the flames die out. Requires aManipulation + Occult roll, difficulty 7, withat least 2 successesrolled to take effect.

Price of FailureThe price of failure ought to be obvious... the powers you

are trying to wield rise up and engulf you! A simple failure justindicates that nothing happened, but a botch typically meansthat the attack backlashes onto the caster, inflicting whateverfate was intended for the target back on the attacker.

Mana ManipulationNearly every sorcerer recognizes the flow of some sort of

power: mana, sekhem, chi, vis or some other representation ofmagical potential. Most magicians learn to feel or describe theenergies that course through them during the casting of spells.Some, however, learn to direct these powet sources in order toreshape the fundamental mystic energy about them. Geomancy,ley line channeling, feng shui —all of these sense and redirectthe power of raw magic energy into new ditections and shapes.

Mana Manipulation is an esoteric Path, and few sorcererswould describe it in such abstract terms— rather, most see it asan exercise described by their specific magical style. A magicianused to feng shui and chi kung, for instance, will channel chienergies with special mirrors or moxa burning, A sorcerer whorelies on incantations and wands will use those tools to directMana and store it. Spirit-talkers and shamans may rely onelaborate designs to trap and hold energy or paintings that wardoff negative enetgies,

System

Modifiers: 1 for areas of strong Mana (Nodes and the like)Time: One turn per effect levelDuration: Varies

Instead of aspects, this Path offers certain feats that may beperformed at each level.

• The sorcerer can sense Mana energies. In simple terms,a quick meditation or invocation allows the sorcerer to deter-mine if an area or item is charged with power (Quintessence,Mana, vampire blood, what have you). With three or moresuccesses, the sorcerer can tell if it has a specific Resonance—recognizing a sacred grove as a place holy to nature and growthor determining that some sort of stored Mana is actually flavoredwith a destructive, poisonous Resonance, for instance.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 81

Roll:Cost:

Manipulation + Occult1 Willpower

Dark PathsMost societies of sorcerers consider certain Paths

to be dark knowledge, Paths whose understandingbtings with it certain costs of insanity, corruption ordamnation. Depending on the society, these Pathsmay be forbidden, taught only to those already as-sumed to be free of corruption or forgotten altogether,known of only in legend and myth.

Exactly which Paths are considered Dark Pathsdepends on the teachings of the society in question.Most Western societies consider Paths such as Hellfire,Shadowcasting, the cursing aspects of the Path ofFortune and Daimonic Summoning to be Dark Paths,but in other cultures or societies, these powers may beconsidered totally normal, or even sacrosanct, whileothers are considered utterly profane.

The Law of RetributionMany, though not all, societies have a tradition

that states in brief that what magic is used for comesback to the user. "As ye reap so shall ye sow," and"what you send out, you get back threefold" are buttwo examples of this philosophy.

Although not universal, this belief seems tohave some grounding in fact; those who use sorceryfor evil often come to evil ends. Whether or notsorcery has a conscience is up to the Storyteller todecide; it should be kept in mind, however, thatsorcery does not seem to mind being used for profit oreven for justified retribution or self-defense. It is onlywhen sorcery is used to needlessly harm others or togain wealth or power at another's expense that thelaw of retribution comes into effect.

The law is also not universal... far from it. Manyevil sorcerers live out their lives without any prob-lems, comfortable in their villainy.

• • While an initiate can sense magical energy in places orobjects, a sorcerer with this level of Mana Manipulation can seethe magical energy in and around creatures. The sorcerer'sperceptions let him determine if someone is using magic andallow him to see obstructed or occluded magical flows (likeblocked chi energies or curses). The sorcerer can also make arough estimate of the potential magical energy held by anindividual, though this does not guarantee separating a super-natural creature from an otherwise normal human.

••• Skilled sorcerers can displace or alter the flow ofMana around an area. The sorcerer can briefly block a Manaflow (each success causes a Node or other wellspring of Mana tobecome dormant for a turn) or push it in a different direction(again, for one turn per success). The sorcerer can cause Manato become trapped in asimple object, though agiven object canonly hold a single point of Mana through a brief spell of this sort.

• ••• Manipulation of personal Mana energies allows asorcerer to store additional Mana (temporarily), draw from aplace of power to fuel his magic or even disrupt a person's Manaflow to cause injury. The sorcerer can draw Mana out of a placeof power; each success allows the sorcerer to channel one pointof Mana (to the limit of the area's power), which must be usedin the next turn. Striking at a person to destroy Mana allows thesorcerer to strip Mana from the individual's pool at a one-success-for-one-point rate; this can also discharge the power inother magical pools (like Gnosis) on a two-successes-per-pointratio. Mana Manipulation at this level can cause injury orhealing by altering the flow of life energy through a subject,essentially promoting health ot disease. (This has no immediateeffect, but over time may cause degeneration or better health;long-term or powerful alterations are better performed with theHealing Path.)

• •••• The master of Mana can not only sense andredirect Mana, but can use Mana to infuse countermagic(creating a magical "shield" that allows him to add Mana to acountermagic dice pool), block another sorcerer's use of Mana(each success stops an opponent's point of Mana from empow-ering an effect) or even change the Resonance of Mana (turningpoisoned Mana into neutral, "clean" energy that could be usedwith helpful spells or bend ing otherwise passive Mana toa moreactive, fiery Resonance for use with destructive magic), withsuccesses dictating the level of change — one success wouldalter the Resonance slightly, three would cancel out a charac-teristic and five would reverse it.

• • • • • • A legendary sorcerer can briefly cause an area tobecome a nexus of Mana energy. With a spell of this level, thesorcerer creates a flow of Mana for a few moments, turninghimself into a sort of magical magnet. Successes garnered onsuch a spell are spirt between duration (in turns) and power (inMana per turn). The sorcerer or others present may channel thisMana normally. Doing so, however, can be very debilitating;such magic often has side effects or burns out the caster (scoreone level of bashing damage for each success rolled).

RitualsMana Manipulation rituals allow a sorcerer to extend his

power over Mana to cover wide areas or long durations.

82 SORCERER

Infusion (••)The sorcerer takes an otherwise normal potion or other

consumable object and places some of his own Mana into it forlater use. The successes scored determine how much Mana cango into the item. Energy usually "leaks" during this process;every two points of Mana spent by the sorcerer channel onepoint into the storage receptacle.

Shape Mana (•••)With special mirrors, diagrams, carvings or the like, the

sorcerer turns the flow of Mana in an area so that it changesdirection and intent. The sorcerer could cause "bad" energies tobecome wholesome, alter a spell effect or turn a ley line so thatit runs through his residence. The level of success guides the feat:With one success, the sorcerer could dissipate some unluckyenergies so that a place does not attract evil spirits or ill fortune.With three successes, the sorcerer can channel joss so that alocation has good fortune (lowering by one the difficulty of allcommerce or practices of the area — a store would facilitatebusiness, a hospital would encourage healing, and so on). Withfive successes, the sorcerer can reshape a magic effect already inthe area to the limits of his own knowledge (turning, say, a wardso that it wards against a different creature type) or even causea Node or other source of power to channel its energy to alocation of his choosing. Mana reshaped in this form typicallylasts until some force "snaps" it back to normal, though someplaces may require specific maintenance (yearly for simpleeffects like good luck, perhaps daily rituals for bending ley lines).

It is a frequent theme in tales of the fantastic and themagical that odd things often happen in dreams. Omens of thefuture are sometimes seen, messages from gods or wizards arepassed on. There are tales of lovers who have not yet met,destined for each other, dreaming of their first meeting. TheDream Realm is infinitely malleable, responsive to the con-scious and subconscious of the dreamer. A skilled dreamer canimpose his will upon the Dream Realm, creating new imagesand altering the behavior of old, banishing nightmares orcrafting new horrors with which to terrorise other dreamers. Itis said, too, that there are world and beings that exist whollywithin the world of dreams and nightmares, from the realms ofthe fae to the strange worlds described in the writings ofBurroughs, Lovecraft and Poe.

Nearly everyone dreams. The oneiromancer walks amongthose dreams. Like the dreamweavers of horror movie fame, shecan craft images so realistic that it is hard to tell the differencebetween them and reality. Still, they are "only" dreams. Or arethey? An overly imaginative subconscious can quite literallydream itself to death, though this is rare. More common are thetales of wicked men who dreamed of their ultimate fate andheeded the warning to reform their ways. Such messages are afine and subtle weapon of those who walk the dreaming night.And sometimes, dreams can walk amongst men....

SystemRoll: Wits + Occult.Cost: None

Oneiromancy

AspectsDistanceIn order to affect a dreamer, the oneiromancer must have

some sort of contact with her target. Physical contact is the best,obviously, but the principles of Sympathy and Contagion allowthe use of other means.• Direct physical contact• • True Name• • • Body part/secretion*• • • • Prized possession

• • • • • Other possession* ** Blood, hair, nail clippings, saliva, urine, etc. It must

be unmixed with other materials.** Any item that is in frequent contact with or use by

the target, such as clothing,

Effects:• The first step the dreamwalker must master is the ability

to reach out and touch the dreams of others. They come to heras do most dreams, in flashes of imagery, often highly distortedby the subconscious. The dreamwalker can, with considerablethought, interpret parts of these shattered fragments, perhapsgiving her some insight into her target's nature or history.

• • Working out the methodology to enter and take part ina dream is the next step. Entering the dream renders youtemporarily apart of it; the oneiromancer's dream-self takes onan appearance and initial tole in the dream provided by thedreamer's subconscious (and the Storyteller's feel for what isappropriate). It is not hard to make small changes in the dream(conjuring a small item from nowhere.say), a Wits + Dreamcraftroll at difficulty 6 suffices. Larger changes are very difficult, andthe basic theme of the dream sequence is unalterable. Anychange which violates it will be at a minimum difficulty of 8 andrequire multiple successes—and will tend to undo itself unlessthe dreamer pays constant attention to maintaining it.

• • • Eventually, the dedicated dreamwalker will learn toisolate himself from his subject's dreams. This allows observa-tion of the dream images without being drawn into (possiblyquite dangerous) direct participation. A greater degree of con-trol over the dream is also possible now, the dreamwalkerbanishing or creating nightmares and fantasies. It is possible, forexample, to guide a dream to images supporting the self-confidence and surety of the dreamer, helping him to regain apoint of temporary Willpower or to cast horrible terrors thatmimic the effect of the Nightmares Flaw.

• • • • Once she has achieved sufficient control over thedream, the next step is to master dream sendings. Theoneiromancer can craft a specific, detailed dream sequence andsend it off to the target, to be repeated as many times as the castergains successes on his casting roll. The prudent dreamwalkerkeeps these to one or two repetitions a night; any more and thesubject may grow suspicious.

• •••• A master of the Dream Realm is a powerfulindividual; she walks freely in the dreams of others and iscapable of melding the dreams of several folk into one (she can

bring one person into the dream for each success on the castingroll). Of course, she has no control over the dreamers' actions,and the initial environment will be a mix of their subconsciousinfluences, but careful nudges can send the group into a suitabledream with a bit of effort.

• • • • • • The greatest and most legendary power ofOneiromancy is the ability to make the dream real: physicalentry into the Dream Realm. One who accomplishes thisincredibly difficult feat can walk from dream to dream almost atwill and may even be able to bring items (or even living things)out of the dream into the real world — for a time.

Price of Failure:A botched dreamweaving typically casts the sorcerer into

a Nightmare Realm as his own subconscious takes control of thedream. Storytellers are encouraged to reach deep into their bagsof tricks. Use the character's fears and memory of past disastersagainst him. The descriptions of Harrowings in Wraith: TheOblivion can be quite useful in this. Note also that stepping intothe dreams of a person who suffers the effects of the NightmaresFlaw can he a disaster all by itself, their dream images arepowerful and frequently painful.

ShadowcastingWith mastery of this Path, the shadows become your tools,

the darkness your ally, and the night your friend. Despite theaccusations of those who claim that the Path is, if not activelyinfernal, at least tinged with an ineffable darkness that cancorrupt the unwary, the Path of Shadows is no more inherentlyevil than most other Paths. Whatever evil a sorcerer finds on thePath of Shadows, he brought himself.

A shadowcaster learns to manipulate and conjure shadowstuff— at first, mere simple shade but, with experience, near-tangibleblackness or total nightfall. Color and light are absorbed andextinguished by these shadows, which dance and caper at thesorcerer's beck and call. Needless to say, such displays can be quiteunnerving; even a novice sorcerer can conjure effects that willfrighten the wits out of most normal humans.

SystemRoll: Manipulation + OccultCost: 1 WillpowerModifiers: NoneTime: One turn per level of effectDuration: Varies

This Path does not have aspects per se; rather, its effects arelimited by raw level.

• The caster can deepen and darken shadows and darknessin a room or area. The overall lighting doesn't alter, but thoseshadows that do exist will be much darker than they ought to be.If you desire, those shadows can carry with them a feeling ofunease and spookiness. Exact effects depend on the situation(using this ability in a brightly lit office will have little effect,while doing it in a shadowy warehouse would give a sorcerer(and others) the effect of an extra dot of Stealth.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 83

• • By shaping the shadows in his area and muffling thesounds he makes, the sorcerer can become almost impossible todiscover. He can make his appearance indistinct, his voice eerieand creepy and the shadows deep and dark around himself. Add2 dice to dice pools involving Arcane, Disguise (for purposes ofhiding your appearance, not for taking on the appearance ofothers), Intimidation or Stealth. If the sorcerer casts the shad-ows on another, the victim will begin to see things out of thecomer of his eyes, horrible shadowy forms that dissolve whenthe head rums. Strange creaks, ominous footsteps and hollowlaughter will inhabit his hearing, and a rising sense of dread willoccupy every spare thought. A Willpower roll (difficulty equalto the number of successes rolled) is necessary to avoid fumblingand hesitation; while not enough to cause penalties, this willcause someone to reconsider whether or not they should behere, instead of safe at home in his well-lit living room....

• • • The shadows rile and coil about the shadowcaster.Color fades from the area, and sounds become mere whispersand murmurs... or sudden piercing laughs, screams and othersounds of terror. Panic rises in all but the most stout hearted(Willpower roll, difficulty equal to the successes rolled + 2;failure indicates either a sudden, near irresistible urge to beelsewhere or a -1 to all tasks). You may add 3 dice to yourattempts to conceal your character (or another).

•••• The shadows are the sorcerer's allies in all ways.Those who oppose him must make a Willpower roll (difficulty8) or be struck down in near-terror (-2 on all tasks — fear thisgreat may drive some to frenzy). Add 4 dice to your dice poolsfor Intimidation, Arcane and Stealth. Cameras and otherelectronic recording devices will fail unless the operators suc-ceed at an Intelligence + (appropriate skill: Computers,Investigation, Photography, Science) roll (difficulty 8, gener-ally, although very simple equipment might need only a 6).

••••• The shadows reach out and engulf the caster'sopponents; what they see there is enough to reduce even thegreatest to shivering wrecks. Used offensively, the opponentmust make a Willpower check (difficulty 8, 3 successes needed)or be reduced to uselessness for several rums; a victim that wasalready afraid of the dark or enclosed spaces will probablyrequire psychiatric attention before recovering. Those shroudedin the darkness will be totally invisible to those outside it (andto each other). Naturally, the caster can see in his own darkness.Any recording device brought into the darkness fails immedi-ately (no roll allowed); any pointed at the darkness see onlyroiling masses of... nothing. Inky blackness. Shadows.

• • • • • • The legendary sorcerer can give the shadows aphysical form, shaping them into chains or tentacles to grab andhold those he wants stopped. The number of successes scoredrepresents the total amount of Strength that can be brought tobear against opponents; you can divide these points up as youwant. Bright light will weaken these shadows; sunlight willdestroy them. Alternatively, the caster can use this power to dimeven the brightest lights; even the sun will dim, although onlytemporarily, and only in a small, well-defined area (an alleywayor courtyard, for example).

Price of FailureThe shadows are cruel servants... or are they masters? In

any case, botches with this Path are certainly undesirable.Sorcerers can end up befuddling themselves as much (or more)than their opponents, drawing the shadows they intended toinflict on others upon themselves. Rumors speak of shadowyforms coming out of shadows that didn't exist... couldn't exist,in broad daylight, to draw a sorcerer who has badly botched intothe darkness, never to be seen again. Others speak of thingsdrawn forth that have forever pursued students of this Path...and those caught by them are never quite the same again.

Shapeshifting (No Rituals)While the World of Darkness is indeed home to some

shapeshifting monsters, a few sorcerers learn to alter their bodiesthrough magical practice rather than inborn heritage. Perhapsit's a spoken word that calls to the primal animal within or theintervention of an animal-spirit or even a little judicious geneticengineering. This Path is very elemental, often calling uponinstinctive knowledge, and many sorcerers have lost theirpersonalities to the beast-side conjured up. Others lose theiridentity in malleability. For a few, shapeshifting is less an artthan a natural talent, but one unchanneled by the callings of thetrue Changing Breeds. It seems that Shapeshifting comes in asmany forms as its practitioners.

SystemRoll: Stamina + Animal Ken (mythic sorcery)

Intelligence + Science (extraordinary science)Cost: One Willpower per useModifiers: NoneDuration: One scene

ASPECTSShift Scale

84 SORCERER

•

• •

• • •

• •••

• ••••

• •••• •

A minor cosmetic change: The sorcerer canchange eye colors, grow hair, etc.Noticeable change: The sorcerer grows smallclaws, sprouts scales on the hands or the like.Significant change: The sorcerer replaces somebody part with an animal feature — a full clawedpaw, a nasty shark jaw or an externalized diges-tive system.

Half-shift: The sorcerer can shift half of his bodyinto another form or find some halfway pointbetween human and animal with significanttraits of each. The sorcerer might resemble abipedal wolf (of size somewhere between humanand wolf) or could have bird wings and a beakwith human legs.Full shifting: The sorcerer can change com-pletely into animal forms.Mythic shifting: Not only can the sorcerer takeon animal forms, he may turn into forms that heonly imagines.

Price of FailureShapeshifters have a tendency to lose control over their

shifting processes; a sorcerer who botches might trap himself inan animal's body or accidentally give an enemy useful advan-tages. The sorcerer could replace his mental acuity with animalinstincts, or his body might start shifting out of control.

Summoning, Binding andWarding (All Rituals)

Perhaps the most ubiquitous among legendary sorceries isthe ability to bind and control various natural or supernatural

entities. Sorcerers can use their powers to command ghosts,demons, animals — even other people. With protective circlesthe sorcerer hedges out enemies, while with summoning spells,he calls the subjects to him.

Summoning, Binding and Warding are perhaps the mostdangerous of spells. Attempts to bind creatures almost inevita-bly make them hostile. A sorcerer may not know that a ward isunsuccessful until an enemy attacks! And, of course, manyhapless sorcerers learn to summon creatures long before learn-ing to bind and control them. Worse still, many extradimensionalbeings possess will too strong to be easily bound.

All Summoning, Binding and Warding powers are rituals;the sorcerer must properly prepare and incant to make the effecthappen. The aspects determine the sorts of creature that thesorcerer can summon and for how long. Each type of creaturerequires a separate ritual; Summon Rats, Bind Rats and WardAgainst Vampires are all separate rituals.

Summoning, Binding and Warding covers many differentareas of study. Material Summoning refers to physical creatures,like the summons of rats or bats. Daimonic Summoning affectsangelic or demonic entities. Ephemera refers to the practice ofdealing with spirits in general; Necromancy covers dealingswith ghosts of the dead. Coiling or Technomantic Summoningrefers to the practice of summoning or binding technologicalitems — some modern sorcerers might even call their cars tothem or ward their computers against viruses!

SystemRoll: Intelligence + OccultCost: One Willpower

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 85

Subject• ••••

• •••

• ••••

• •••• •

The sorcerer can only affect himself.The sorcerer can affect a different subject insteadof himself.The sorcerer can affect two subjects at once.The sorcerer can affect up to three subjects at atime.

•-•••

••••

• • • • •

••••• •

The sorcerer can only affect himself and musttake only one animal feature.The sorcerer can make two unrelated shifts:having a wolf claw and a raven's head or chang-ing himself to have fangs and an opponent tohave whiskers.The sorcerer can make three unrelated shifts.The sorcerer can freely mix and match shiftingtraits.

Disparity

AspectsCreatures AffectedA creature compelled by a Summoning must appear to the

sorcerer. Thus, the sorcerer can see spirits or the like that arebrought forth, vampires are forced from hiding, etc. Note thatthe creature must move under its own power; the spell does notteleport it into the location. Thus, Summoning a toaster doeslittle good unless it has wheels.

Modifiers: NoneDuration: See below

•

• •

• • •

• •••

• • • • •

• •••• •

Simple creatures: The sorcerer can affect small,unintelligent animals, like rats, bats and insects. Thisalso functions upon simple nature spirits or basictechnological devices.Large creatures: The summoner may affect largeanimals like wolves. The summoner may alsoaffect ghosts of the dead or larger technicaldevices like televisions.Humans: The summoner's magic functionsupon normal humans or upon self-willed natu-ral spirits. Computers and complex electronicsmay be affected.Paranatural: The summoner can affect ghouls,other sorcerers and similar supernatural entities.Technomagical devices may be affected.Supernatural: The summoner's powers reachbeyond to affect truly supernatural material be-ings such as vampires, werewolves and the like.The sorcerer could use technosummons againstairplanes, wards across entire buildings and so on.Celestial: The summoner can invoke his powersagainst gods, demons and angels.

NumberEach dot of Summoning allows the sorcerer to summon

one creature of the appropriate type or one swarm for smallanimals and insects.

Warding StrengthEach dot causes the subject to lose one die from all actions

against the sorcerer.With Warding at three or above, the sorcerer may create

a Warding Circle; unless the creature scores more successes ona Willpower roll than the sorcerer's player scored on the Wardroll, the creature cannot pass into or out of the circle.

Binding IntensityBinding levels are cumulative. Note that a creature may

expend a point of Willpower to resist a Binding, though thesorcerer may recast it.•

• •

• ••

The creature cannot act against the sorcerer.The creature must truthfully answer any singlequestion put to it.The creature truthfully answers questions andmust perform any one service demanded, thoughit may twist the intent of the service.

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• • • • The creature performs a task for the caster asdirected, following the orders closely.

• •••• The sorcerer may command the creature to performone task on behalf of another person and order it toanswer any questions put to it by others.

••••• • The creature follows the spirit as well as the letterof the sorcerer's commands.

Duration•••••••••••••••••••• •

One turnThree turnsOne sceneOne dayOne storyPermanent (?)

Price of FailureThe price of failure should be self-evident for Summoning,

Binding and Warding. Those who meddle in the affairs ofdemons eventually get what they deserve, A creature may arriveand pretend to be under control; a warding circle might hedgeagainst the sorcerer; a binding may simply enrage the target andeven make the subject resistant to the sorcerer's spells.

Weather Control(No Rituals)

Weather witches have always been among the most reveredand feared members of the sorcerer community. In ancient time, awitch could doom a community to a slow death by withholding therains the crops needed... or could wreck it quickly by bringing onstorms that flood the fields, destroy homes and kill the unwary. Onthe seas, those who could call the winds were lifesavers in truth, fora becalmed vessel was one that would die.

Most cultures consider weatherworking to be a woman's art,drawing on the ties between her fertility and the bounty of the landand the elements, but this is far from universal; in some Africantribes, weather magic was men's magic, for example. Technosorcerersmake no such distinctions, of course, but then, their mastery of thisPath is thought by most to be limited at best. (Whether this is trueis a question of some debate, however, as there are a few who alwaysseem to have the wind at their back, cloudy skies and convenient fogbanks when they need them.)

Weather magic can be terribly powerful but is also usually veryslow to take effect. Changes in the weather are usually measured inhours or days; you can speed these processes up, but you cannotsummon tidal waves out of nothing or storms from clear skies. Whengiven time to work, however, weathercraft can command forces thatare truly awesome and terrifying to behold, but not without cost.Even simple changes can leave a sorcerer drained; major workingscan demand terrible sacrifices or even the death of the caster.

SystemRoll: Manipulation + WillpowerCost: Weatherworking is expensive. An effect costs

one Willpower per 2 dots in Intensity, plus one

for every 3 dots of Duration, Speed and Scale (orfraction thereof).

Modifiers: noneDuration: see belowNote: Because of the nature of weathercraft, the sor-

cerer does not gain the benefit of Path dots asfreebie successes; almost all weathercraft castingwill be performed as extended task checks.

AspectsIntensity• You can make small changes in the environment: a

sudden cold breeze, a slight drop in room temperature, asoftening of the light in a room, the sudden flaring of candles,

•• Minor changes to the environment are possible; youcan summon up a dense fog, ensure that skies are cloudy or createfavorable winds.

••• The rains and winds are at your command. Rainshowerscome when you call them, and strong winds blow where youwill. You can change the local temperature by as much as 30degrees in either direction and can calm strong seas or currents,

• • • • Storms move and surge where you will; powerfulrains, gale force winds, heat waves and cold snaps (changes of upto 40 degrees in temperature), and powerful tides and undercur-rents are all at your command. You can also take control ofexisting weather patterns; an additional Manipulation + Occultroll (difficulty 7) allows you to direct some phenomenon of thestorm (hailstones, powerful waves, lightning bolts, smashingwinds, etc.) at aspecific target. These attacks do (4 health levels+ the caster's successes); a new roll must be made for each attack.Lightning bolts do lethal damage (aggravated if the subject

"botches" the soak roll ), other attacks do either lethal or bashingdamage depending on their exact effects.

• • • • • Your control over the thunderstorm is absolute.Great waves surge and crash when you command, and no mancan stand when you send the winds against him. The blizzardand the drought are your weapons. Elemental attacks sentagainst others do 6 health levels + your successes on a Manipu-lation + Occult roll.

• • • • • • You can summon the most destructive of weatherpatterns: tornadoes, hurricanes and monsoons, killing frosts, duststorms, lethal heat waves and raging thunderstorms. Their elemen-tal attacks can kill even the most powerful of men; attacks do a baseof 8 health levels + successes rolled. Storms of this magnitude willdisrupt local weather patterns for weeks or even mondis after thestorm itself fades away; the faster the storm is summoned the moreextreme the aftermath and disruptions.

Speed

Duration•••

•••••••• ••••• •• •• •

A few seconds, no more , and only for minor changes.A minute or so. Major changes cannot last thisshort a period of time.A few minutes, maybe half an hour at most.An hour at mostSeveral hours, maybe a day.Up to a week.

•

• •

• ••

• •••

• • • ••

• • • • • •

50 square feet or so. Minor changes only.Affects about a half-mile area.A mile or two in size. Extreme changes cannottake place in this small an area.An area roughly five miles in diameter. All butthe most extreme changes are possible.An area 20 miles in diameter. Any kind ofchanges are possible.An area nearly 100 miles in diameter.

Scale

Price of FailureEven a simple failure at Weather Control will result in weird

shifts and changes in the local weather patterns; a botch can disruptthe local weather almost beyond recognition (snow on the Sahara,droughts in the rain forests, etc.) or muck up the weather patterns foran entire region to a lesser degree. A sorcerer could find himselfsummoning up the mother of all hurricanes when he was trying fora simple thunderstorm or fried in her own thunderbolts.

Chapter Four: Paths and Rituals 87

• The changes you request will happen... eventu-ally. Depending on the severity of the change, itmight take anywhere from minutes to a week ormore for the weather you summon to arrive.

••

•••

••••

•••••

••••• •

Minor manipulations of the local weather occurwithin a few seconds or minutes of your enactingthe change. Major changes still take long periodsof time to take effect, depending on the severityof the shift.Small changes take effect within a minute of yourcalling them, and larger changes require only afew hours to a day to take effect. The mostextreme of shifts in weather, however, still takeseveral days to set up.Minor changes are almost instantaneous, largerchanges occur within a few hours, and extremechanges happen in a day or two.Minor changes occur when and how you askthem to, larger changes happen in an hour or so,and even extreme changes usually take placewithin a day of you asking for them.Even the largest of storms come within an hour ortwo of your calling diem. Summoning a stormwith this kind of speed is guaranteed to mess uplocal weather patterns and will certainly attractlarge amounts of attention from those who watchthe skies. . . not to mention weirding out everymeteorologist on the same continent as you are.

While some few people study for years tounlock mystic potential, a few are born withan innate sense of the strange — the vaguefeeling that some deeper understanding lurksin the mind or the body, a visceral awarenessof the intangible energies around them.Whether psychic phenomena are some sort ofintuitive sorcery or an altogether differentplane of understanding, nobody knows. In-deed, little is conclusively known about psychic

powers; few people believe in them, and fewer still have anysort of talent with them. The mysteries of the psychic world,it seems, will not fall readily to analysis.

Those who make a study of psychic powers, whetherthrough science or mysticism, note many different realms ofempathy, extrasensory perception, manipulation and detec-tion. What most psychic powers have in common is theirmeans of use: The majority of psychics find that concentra-rion and visualization are the most important tools for theirabilities. While such tools are also necessary components of

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 89

sorcery, few psychics feel a need for outside rituals or devices.Many simply extend a hand or close their eyes and exert theirwill, and something happens.

For most psychics, control remains rudimentary andhaphazard. Psychic phenomena remain far from reliable orrepeatable, in many cases. Under stress or test conditionsmany powers seem to fade or fail, and even a practicedpsychic can rarely exert power with reliable precision. Some-times, a power exceeds expectation; other times, it simplywon't seem to come to the fore.

Theories of psychic development abound, of course,among those who make study of such things: Throwbacks toAtlantean forbears; alien intervention; the next step inhuman evolution; mutants; spiritual entities — the theoriesare nearly as wild and diverse as the powers themselves. Inthe meantime, the psychics hidden among the populace findtheirpowersa mixed blessing, perhaps an insight into a widerand more maddening world.

Psychics as Sorcerers(or Chi Masters orWhat-Have-You)

Whether psychics are truly distinct from sorcerers or aresimply a separate brand of them remains a matter of dispute. Thevery unreliability of psychic phenomena makes classificationdifficult. These rules assume that psychics are something rela-tively distinct, people whose minds or spirits give them access tounusual powers that are not exactly magical but far from normal.If you prefer, though, you can use something resembling moreof a unified system: Just assume that a psychic is essentiallymanipulating the same powers as a sorcerer, but in a differentway— through focus and concentration alone, maybe with oneor two small items to focus the will but without elaborate rituals,tools or spiritual aides. In sucha case, simply allow the full rangeof psychic and sorcerous abilities to overlap, and let characterslearn either—the only difference is that the psychic uses fierceconcentration (and lots of Willpower), while the sorcerer reliesmore upon tools. Conversely, if you wish to maintain a separate"feel" between sorcery and psychic phenomena, assume theseparation between the sorts of powers and the idea that the twoare totally different disciplines.

Previous WorksPreviously published works have listed a single psychic

ability here and there, hidden kernels of psychic poweramong other magical abilities. While this list is far fromcomplete (Hey, there's the ability to psychically turn eggs intoelephants?), it does attempt to cover the range of psychicphenomena. Additionally, some of the abilities listed do notmatch previously published versions. Players and Storytell-ers should work together to decide which version they prefer.

Animal PsychicsThe guard dog snarled. Hot drool dripped from its muzzle,

and Kevin could almost count the teeth in the Rottweiler's mouth.

"Good dog," he whispered. The dog's expression changed imme-diately. He sat down and let Kevin scratch him behind the ears."That's a good boy." Kevin waved for his companions to join him.Kevin chucked the dog under his chin. The formerly fiercejunkyard dog licked Kevin's palm. With his other hand, Kevinreached in his pocket. "Got a treat for you."

While most psychic abilities affect other humans, somepsychics use their talents on the "lower" animals. The actualmethod of communication may vary. Some psychics bark orgrowl at the animal. Others use dressage gestures, even if theanimal has never even seen a trainer before. A few simplyspeak their native language (or even an imaginary one) andhear the animal speak it back to them. Animals may commu-nicate with the psychic, though the information they relateshould be limited by their intelligence and perceptions.

Animal psychics may use their power on any mammal,lizard or bird with no change in the difficulty. In feet, highlyintelligent animals (chimpanzees, dolphins, gorillas) or well-trained animals (dogs, horses, circus or show animals) are moresusceptible to Animal Psychic. At the Storyteller's discretion,reduce the difficulty by one or two. Fish are harder to control;increase the difficulty by two. Insect minds are too simple (orperhaps too different) for the psychic to affect.

Roll; Charisma + Animal Ken• Communication: The psychic may "speak" with a single

animal, allowing two-way communication with the beast. Thiscommunication does not give the psychic control over theanimal, though misunderstandings may be explained away. Rollat difficulty 6.

• • Command: The psychic can command the animal toperform for him. The animal will not endanger itself for thepsychic. However, it can do any trick the psychic can

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But I Wanna Teleport to Mars...Players familiar with the White Wolf game Trinity

will notice a difference between the powers and powerlevels available in this handbook and those presented inthat game.

Good. Glad you were paying attention.The World of Trinity and the World of Darkness

are two distinct places. The higher power levels ofTrinity fit that game world. Similarly, the eerie, some-what unreliable psychic phenomena described here aremore suited to the World of Darkness.

With that caveat, players and Storytellers inter-ested in psychic phenomena should check out Trinity,especially the freeform psi system described in theTrinity Players Guide.

Oh, remember one thing, though: The World ofDarkness a game of modem horror in a world almost ourown. Really cinematic psychic powers don't fit into thefeel of the game. Psychic phenomena should be myste-rious and unreliable.

adequately describe. Under certain circumstances, an animal will attack forthe psychic, though it would be under circumstances where theanimal had some proclivity toward attacking in the first place. Apolice dog might bring someone to the ground, or a hungry tigermight go after a hunter. Roll at difficulty 7, with modifiersdepending upon the complexity of the command (plus one fora rather complex command or one to which the animal isambivalent; minus one for something it would do anyway).

• • • Mass Communication: This power works like the Commu-nication power, though it now wotks on all animals within earshot.Additionally, the psychic may communicate with multiple types of animalssimultaneously. Roll at difficulty 6, plus one for each additional species ofanimal in the area of communication.

•••• Mind Link: With this power, the psychic joins his mind with thatof a single animal. Once the link is established, the psychic's and theanimal's minds are linked until the psychic drops the connection. Whilelinked, the psychic can perceived whatever the animal perceives. Shecan also communicate with the animal, using any of the lesser AnimalPsychic powers, with the difficulty reduced by one. The drawback to thispower is that if the animal is injured, the mental feedback injures thepsychic. For every lethal wound level the animal takes, the psychic takesone bashing wound level (soakable normally). Difficulty is 8.

• • • • • Domination: This ability gives the psychic total controlof an animal's mind. It will do whatever the psychic wishes, even atthe cost of its own life. Roll at difficulty 8 and spend 1 Willpower.The animal will explicitly follow one command. The commandmay be conditional ("if somebody attacks me, then kill him") butcan not be conjunctional ("follow the scent of this shirt andattack him").

Anti-PsychicZippo looked around at the basement of the abandoned

building. This will burn nicely, he thought, very nicely. Hesnapped his fingers. His eyes widened, and he looked down athis hand. He snapped again and whispered, "burn." His voicequavered, and he snapped a third time, "burn, damn you."A voice came from behind him. "Sorry, firebug. Can't let youdo that."

Anti-psychic is the rarest psychic talent yet observed.The psychics' very presence makes even reliable psychictalents weaken or fail. Sensitives, before their powers failthem, describe the anti-psychic as generating a "static" in themental plane. An anti-psychic cannot purchase additional psychic powers. Due to the subtle nature of their powers, mostanti-psychics remain unaware of theit talent until approached oreven attacked by other psychics. Anti-Psychic is useful against allpsychic abilities, as well as the Mind Sphere (though it provides only asingle level of defense against the lattet, tegardless of the anti-psychic'spower).

The stronger the anti-psychic, the larger the radius affected. Anti-Psychicisn't "activated" in the fashion of other powers; rather, it always clouds thosearound the anti-psychic, adding its level to the difficulty of all psychic powersin the area. (As usual, pushing a difficulty past 9 generates a threshold forsuccesses.) With a roll of Intelligence + Meditation (difficulty 7) an anti-psychic may dampen this aura down one level per success rolled; this allows

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 91

In the backseat of the car, Karla's body twitched as her spiritreunited with her body . She wiped her mouth and stretched. Johnhanded her a can of soda and quietly asked, "So, was the tip forreal?" Karla gulped hungrily for the liquid and nodded. "Yuppers.Mister Vice- President for Marketing is doing more than dictationwith his secretary. His wife can call her lawyers. The hotel receiptsshould give us all the proof they need."

The power of Astral Projection allows the psychic tosplit his spirit off from his body. The discamate spirit cantravel very quickly in this form. The spirit intangibly travelsacross planes of thought while still able to look in on thephysical world. While in astral form, the psychic cannotphysically affect the real world, though he may use other

psychic abilities (the difficulty numbers for doing so areincreased by two). However, while away from his body, hecannot perceive what is happening to it. Many out-of-bodytravelers have nightmares about someone moving or harm-ing their physical self while their spirit is roaming free.

Two astrally projecting characters may affect each other,though for purposes of astral combat, they substitute theirWits for Dexterity, their Intelligence for Strength and theirPerception for Stamina. Some astrally projecting psychicscould once perceive ghosts and certain spitits, but most suchspirits now appear as blurry forms, barely in the realm ofperception. In general, an astral spirit can see the materialworld or other abstract spirits in the realm of thought; ghostsof the dead and the like usually remain imperceptible exceptto those psychics who also have some mediumship abilities.

To release the astral form, the player spends one pointof Willpower and rolls for the power. Should the playerbotch while attempting to have his characters step outsidehis body, the psychic is unable to leave his body for 24 hours.Pyschics who frequent the astral plane whisper that otherentities sometimes intrude there, human or otherwise, andon some occasions find their souls drawn to strange spiritworlds far removed from the mortal plane, A few never findtheir way back. Caution is the rule when exploring planesunknown to humans.

Roll: Perception + Meditation (difficulty 8)• With only rudimentary awareness of astral existence,

the psychic can shift her senses to feel the astral realm but

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the anti-psychic some attempt at controlling the power. At theStoryteller's discretion, the expenditure of a point of Willpowermay allow the anti-psychic to suppress his power completely fora turn or let him focus it against a single opponent instead of alarge area. Of course, the anti-psychic must first learn of hispower, what it is, how to channel it and how to meditate uponits use before any such attempts are even possible, but that's parfor the course with psychic phenomena.•

• •

• ••

• •••

• ••••

5 -yard radius.10-yard radius.15-yard radius.20-yard radius.25-yard radius.

Astral Projection

cannot quite enter it. The psychic sees the astral realmoverlaid upon the normal physical world. Some psychicsprefer to close their eyes and visualize the astral plane, whileothers have no difficulty watching both. A psychic may viewthe astral realm for so long as she maintains her concentra-tion upon it.

• • The character can leave her body for one minute perpoint of Stamina. While in astral form, she can only perceiveby sight. She is also limited to traveling approximately onemile away from her body.

••• The character can leave her body for up to 10minutes per point of Stamina. She gains the ability to hearin astral form and can travel up to 100 miles from her body.

• • • • The psychic can now leave her body for up to anhour per point of Stamina and travel up to 1,000 miles away.Each additional hour out of her body after the first requiresthe expenditure of a point of Willpower. If the playersucceeds on a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 8), thepsychic can manifest visually to observers as a translucent,ghostly apparition, though the projector cannot communi-cate verbally with observers.

• • • • • The psychic may astrally travel anywhere in theworld, so long as her body remains healthy, and she may use allof her senses normally. The psychic's form (should she chooseto manifest, using the same roll previously noted) appears as ablurry and translucent version of her usual physical appearance,somewhat idealized. While manifest, the projector can speak,though only in a soft whisper. Like her visual appearance, herspeech does not appear on recordings.

BiocontrolThe dollar bills piled up on the bar. Five sorely drunken men,

one only acting somewhat tipsy, stood in a loose circle. "Last oneto drop it gets the kitty," confirmed the sober one. "One... two...three!" Six matches flickered to life, pinched between clenchedfingers. As the flame traveled down the cheap paper, one by one,the matches dropped. At the last, one drunken man and one soberone held flickering flames between their fingers. Gasping in pain,the last drunk dropped his match.

''Sumbitch hurts!" His eyes widened. "How you doing that, Phil?"

The sober Phil watched the match flicker out between histhumb and forefinger. "Practice."

Most psychics turn their paranormal abilities outward,sensing things beyond normal perceptions or controllingthem with their wills. Other psychics turn their powersinward. Psychics with Biocontrol regulate their autonomicnervous systems with the ease that others tie their shoes.Ptoper use of Biocontrol allows a psychic to shut down pain,regulate his internal organs or even direct the flow of bloodand glandular secretions at will. While some otherwisenormal people learn basic techniques of biofeedback, thetruly talented psychic can perform marvels beyond all butthe most dedicated meditative disciple.

Roll: Stamina + Meditation

• Self-Control: The psychic has power over his body toa basic degree. By entering a self-induced hypnotic state, hecontrols basic functions. He can stop a small cut frombleeding, ignore small amounts of pain or hold his breathlonger than he would be able to under normal circumstances.Roll at difficulty 6 for the effect to succeed. While in this self-imposed trance, the psychic can do nothing else but focus onhis body. He remains peripherally aware of their surround-ings but can bring himself out of the trance at will,

•• Self-Healing: By maintaining his internal focus overa long period of time, the psychic accelerates the healingprocess. Psychics with self-healing recover at a vastly accel-erated rate, as their bodily controls allow them to moreefficiently reknit flesh and fight off infections. Roll at diffi-culty 7, though the current wound penalty does apply to thedice pool. Every success reduces the time for the wound toheal by one stage on the healing chart (see page 247 of Mage:The Ascension). The character must spend his time restingcomfortably (preferably under some sort of medical care) forthe power to work. For instance, if Raymond was Mauled, hewould roll his Stamina + Meditation minus two dice. If hescored 3 successes, he would heal from Mauled to Woundedin threedays. He could then roll again to heal from Woundedto Injured.

• • • Hysterical Strength: The psychic gains control ofhis adrenal glands, allowing brief periods of hysterical strengthand speed. The player rolls at difficulty 8. Every two successeson the roll gives the character one additional point toStrength, Dexterity or Stamina up, to a maximum of fivedots in any characteristic. The effect lasts one scene, afterwhich the player must roll again at difficulty 6 to "soak" thesesuccesses in bashing damage — as the psychic "comes down"from the hysterical episode, his body responds to the exces-sive stress and pain. (Some psychics see this more as a formof channeled energy than as a scientific methodology andmight well have Hysterical Strength without any glandularresponse. The results are the same.)

• • • • Ignore Pain Response: The psychic has the abilityto shut off his paincenters fora brief period of time. This doesnot heal any damage, though it does let him function whileinjured. Roll against difficulty 7. Every success allows thepsychic to ignore one die of wound penalties for one scene.At the end of the scene, the wound modifiers return, and thecharacter cannot deflect away the pain again until he hashealed at least one wound level.

• • • • • Mind Over Matter: The character's control ofhis body is complete. At will, he can stop his own heart,suspend the need for oxygen, regulate digestive functions,control the immune system and accelerate or suppress cellgrowth, regeneration or processing. In effect, the psychic candirect her body consciously to perform feats of biology almostas if her cells responded individually to her mind. Thepsychic can nullify most toxins with a difficulty 8 roll,though sufficiently large doses (like a quart of mercury)would overwhelm his system. He can fight off just about any

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 93

mundane disease, allergen or irritant and can even try tocounteract severe diseases like HIV or cancer (again, atdifficulty 8). With pain control (previous), he can flex andcontort his body into unnatural positions and slip out ofbonds or into tight spaces. He can hold his breath for minutesat a time while remaining active and, if necessary, canactively redirect toxins to other parts of the body — so hemight be able to keep his mind and hands working byshunting the effects of poison gas all into his legs. Thepsychic can, if he prepares his body against trauma, gain anormal Stamina soak against any sort of damage, evenaggravated (difficulty 8; successes determine the maximumnumber of dice that the psychic can use to soak lethal oraggravated damage for the scene, not counting armor orother external modifiers).

ChannelingMrs. Jefferson slowly walked from the grocery store to the

bus stop. The bags were heavy and, once again, the bag boyspointedly didn't offer to help her carry them. "Kids today," shethought. "Momma, you must be laughing at me up in Heaven, Ideserve it, I do." A screech of brakes and a wet, meaty thumppulled her from her reverie. The SUV and the pedestrian met, andthe SUV won. On the street, a young boy bled from multipleinjuries. His skateboard lay in the bushes nearby. Mrs. Jeffersonprayed to herself, "Doctor West, that boy needs your help," Shefelt Dr. West's hands move her arthritic fingers as she/he walkedpurposefully toward the scene. She snatched the telephone fromthe driver of SUV and hung up on his lawyer. Grimacing at thepains shooting through her knees, she knelt down by the boy anddialed 911. With a deeper voice, she spoke into the phone, "Hello.I'm at the corner of Murphy and Highway 6, We have apedestrian versus auto. Trauma to the head, chest and left arm.Pulse is weak. Stomach feels rigid. The EMTs should be readywith a lavage kit. " Mrs. Jefferson let Dr. West help the boy,though in the back of her head, she fretted about her groceries.

Some psychics have the ability to draw upon the knowl-edge of those who have passed on. Channelers tap theknowledge and experience of the dead, briefly obtainingskills that they personally lack. Some psychics have a reper-toire of spirits they can call on for help and assistance. Othersclaim that they tap the collective unconscious.

While the source of knowledge varies, the effects re-main the same. The player rolls the Channeling pool(difficulty 7); every success gives the character one dot of theTalent, Skill or Knowledge desired for the remainder of thescene. On a botch, the channeler has opened herself up toowidely to the spirit planes; she may summon a malevolententity that tries to control her actions, lose some of her usualAbilities as her personality is lost in the influx or simply findherself unable to reach her usual channeling talents for a day,sometimes more.

Note that only one personality may be channeled at atime. Thus, a channeler cannot "stack" additional dots bychanneling multiple personalities at a time.

Roll: Perception + Awareness

• The character can channel once per day. She has avague sense of other personalities floating about and of theexistence of some sort of consciousness beyond the body, butthat's about all.

• • The character can channel two times per day. Shealso can, against a difficulty equal to the Gauntlet, see brieflyinto the Shadowlands where ghosts live. She can communi-cate with ghosts for one minute per success rolled,

••• The character can channel three times per day.She can also see into the Shadowlands for an entire scene byrolling against a difficulty of the Gauntlet,

•••• At this level and beyond there's no limit to howoften the character can channel, though the difficulty in-creases by one for each time after the third until the charactersleeps. She also can let ghosts skilled in the arts of possession(called "Puppetry" by wraiths) easily enter her body to use allof her skills. The medium retains full awareness of thewraith's actions. She can also eject a possessing wraith bywinning a contest of Willpower against the ghost in ques-tion; each attempt costs one Willpower point and takes a fullturn of struggling.

• • • • • The psychic can channel two disparate person-alities at once (and thus the player can roll Channeling twiceand add to determine Ability dots gained). As before, there'sno effective limit to how often the character can channel atthis point, though successive attempts become more difficultuntil the psychic has a full sleep cycle. When possessed by aghost, the channeler often gains some memories from theghost, beyond what the possessor might do or tell — while aweaker channeler might hope that the ghost says or doessomething significant, the master channeler can access someof the ghost's own memories and passions (in game terms,the channeler gains a sense of the ghost's Nature, Demeanorand driving concerns).

Clairvoyance"Six... seven... hard to tell. Something just on the edge,

there, can't quite make it out...." Paul squeezed his already-shuteyes harder, sweat beading on his forehead. "The tall one... he'sthere. He's motioning with something. Saving something. It's...looks like money, but it's colored strangely... no, it's some kindof diagram. A plan! A blueprint!"

Paul looked exhausted as he opened his eyes. "Valent's gotthe plans. We have to move tonight!"

A clairvoyant has the ability to cast his senses away,allowing him to perceive people, places or things at greatdistances. Though technically Clairvoyance refers specifi-cally to remote sight, some psychics can also cast forth theirhearing or other senses as well. Unlike astral projection, theclairsentient does not separate his consciousness from hisbody; he remains aware of what's going on around him(though this can be very confusing if the psychic tries toconcentrate upon two locations at once). Similarly, theclairvoyant does not travel through the intervening space-he simply perceives whatever happens at the target site as ifhe stood there.

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The degree of familiarity the psychic has with the targetmay raise or lower the difficulty (by plus or minus one ortwo). Once the clairvoyant "locks on" to a target, he canthen "pan" his view around, allowing him to see just aboutanything in the immediate area. The limits of their percep-tions are the immediate area in question. If the characterwishes to see beyond that area, he must refocus, and theplayer must make a new roll. For example, a characterlooking into a room in another house could see anything inthat room. However, to switch perceptions into the halloutside would require a second roll. The clairvoyant cannotperceive anything he could not perceive with his normalsenses. Thus, if the target area is completely datkened,remote sight does no good.

Roll: Perception + Awareness (difficulty 8)• The character can see things, though the images are

hazy and dreamlike. The character can extend his senses intojust the immediate area, approximately a mile from his body.

• • The character can see clearly through remote sightand can faintly hear. The range of perception is now any-where in the immediate five to 10 miles, depending on thenumber of successes (1 success = 5 miles, 2 successes = 6miles, etc.).

••• The character can see and hear clearly at a dis-tance. He can also "touch" things at the remote site, thoughhis sense of touch is vague, as if he were wearing heavygloves. (He cannot move things, naturally.) The character'srange expands to 10 miles per success rolled.

• • • • The character can clearly see, hear and touch atrange. Additionally, he can detect strong odors. The rangeis 100 miles per success.

• • • • • The character can use all five senses clearly and canperceive things up to 1,000 miles away per success rolled.

Cyberkinesis"Okay gentlemen, new perp to keep your eyes peeled for,

Someone's been hitting the ATM machines downtown. He'sclipped about $17,000 so far. Nobody's seen anything, and theinternal recorders are blanking out. We're thinking he's dressedas a repairman so nobody notices him cracking the things open.Folks in robbery are looking into the bank services people to see ifone of them has a grudge, or some disgruntled employee.

"All right, that's it. Let's be careful out there."A relatively new talent, Cyberkinesis is the ability to

control electronic machinery with one's mind. Paranormalresearchers believe tha t Cyberkinesis is a specialized applica-tion of telekinesis. The cyberkinetic generates small-scaleelectromagnetic fields that alter the operating systems ofcomputers and other electronic equipment (stereo systems,burglar alarms, etc.). However, while the psychic can con-trol the machine, he cannot "read its mind." That is aseparate power: Cyberpathy. For all powers above LevelOne, he must be able to see what he is doing, generallythrough a monitor of display readout. In effect, a cyberkineticcan send information to a machine but must read it backnormally (or with Cyberpathy).

Roll: Manipulation + Computer• Switch: The cyberkinetic possesses the ability to

switch computers or easily operated electronic equipmentoff and on. Roll at difficulty 6 for machines switched byelectronic relays, difficulty 8 for switches that rely on physi-cal telays.

• • Link: The psychic may operate the electronic equip-ment without touching it, as if by remote control. This doesnot give him any override codesor passwords. He could entera password without typing it at the keyboard, but he couldnot login to the machine without a valid password. Rollagainst difficulty 4 or 5 for simple acts like programming aVCR or entering data into a word processor. Very complexactions require higher difficulty numbers, such as 7 fordriving a car with power steering or 9 for a computercontrolled factory.

••• Scramble: The character possesses the ability tosend microscale power surges through computers, givingthem the equivalent of an epileptic seizure. Computers lockup. Video equipment displays snow, and recording equip-ment picks up nothing but static. The scrambling effect lastsas long as the cyberkinetic concentrates upon it. When theeffect lapses, the machines return to normal operation,though some less robust operating systems will crash. Rollagainst difficulty 7, though complex systems may require an8 or 9.

• • • • Password: The cyberkinetic overrides the operatingsystem of computers, essentially giving himself any password orcode he desires. He can force the computer to do anything thenormal operating system is capable of performing. He could, forinstance, create administrator access for himself, erase data orforge e-mail from anyone with an account on the system. Rollagainst difficulty 7 for ordinary desktop machines, difficulty 8 or9 for machines with high degrees of security or other intrusioncountermeasures,

• •••• Run Hot: The psychic has such control ofelectronics that he can effectively "reprogram" the computerto exceed its normal abilities. A computer calculates faster,a robot arm lifts more, a laser bums hotter. Roll againstdifficulty 8. Every success gives the psychic an extra successto apply to his next use of the machine. However, evetysuccess also does one "health level" of damage to the ma-chine. Apply the wound penalties to the device's subsequentfunctions until it is repaired.

Cyberpathy"You're one of our best programmers, Sridhar, but your

work habits are inexcusable. You come in late. You sneer at thedress codes. You don't follow the company style guides for yourcode. You've been caught spending company time at that chat-room. And you play your music too loud. What have you got tosay for yourself?"

"At least I don' t spend company time e-mailing my mistress,Wouldn't your wife like to know about Vanessa?"

"What? How did you—?"

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 95

Sridhar shrugged. He leaned back in his chair and tacked hisfeet up on his boss' desk, right on top of the laptop. "Let's talkabout my raise instead."

While a cyberkinetic possesses the ability to controlelectronic equipment, the cyberpath can read the datastored on the computer. Researchers believe that the methodfor reading magnetic patterns in a computer's memory or ona hard drive resembles the way telepaths read the electricalimpulses of the human brain.

All uses of Cyberpathy require the psychic to be withinsight of the computer. Characters using Remote Access donot have to be able to see the remote computers they arelinking to, but they must be able to see the machine they'reusing as an entry point. In all cases, the difficulty dependsupon the system complexity: difficulty 6 for standard desktopcomputers to difficulty 9 for heavily encrypted systems. Thisability can also be used to read the data stored on diskettes,tapes or other digital media. Difficulty is 6 for ordinarystorage media, 8 for encrypted data. Generally speaking,these powers take 10 to 15 minutes to use, though thecyberpath can use successes from the roll to reduce the timeby a minute per success,

Roll: Perception + Computer• Analyze Structure: At this level, the cyberpath pos-

sesses the ability to examine the directory structure of thecomputer. He can see what files are stored on the hard drivebut cannot access them. This can be useful to cyberpathhackers looking for a specific piece of data.

• • Read-Only Mode: The cyberpath not only cantravel the directory structure but cart read the files. Simpletext and graphics files are easy to comprehend. Additionally,he can grasp the functions of executable programs. Un-scrambling encrypted fiies remains beyond him at this level.

••• Download: The psychic can "copy" a file from acomputer to his mind, writing the data in unused sections of hisbrain. While he can read text fdes, observe graphics or soundfiles and understand the nature of an executable program, hecannot "run" the program in his brain. With the Level TwoCyberkinesis power Link, the cyberpath can upload the databack onto another computer. The cyberpath can download oneprogram or file into his mind for every dot in Mental Attributeshe possesses. (Example: Sridhar has Perception 3, Intelligence4 and Wits 3. He can keep up to 10 files in his head.) TheStoryteller should decide how much data constitutes a singlefile. Some large files such as operating system kernels, largesoftware packages or large movie files may take up more thanone "file" in the cyberpath's head.

• ••• Remote Access: With this power, the cyberpathconnects to any computer that his local computer connectsto. The cyberpath has no additional powers beyond theability to treat a remote computer as if it were sitting on hisdesktop. For every "hop" between computers, the cyberpathloses 1 die off his pools.

• • • • • Decrypt: The cyberpath's understanding of com-puters progresses to the point where he can decrypt encrypted

data. The data can be on a computer (either locally or oneconnected to via Remote Access) or Downloaded into thepsychic's mind.

The teenagers ran out of the house, screaming for someone,anyone, to help them. From her hiding place in the attic, Barbarachuckled to herself. Her "Freaky Phantoms," as the skinny kid calledthem, worked like a charm. She let her concentration lapse, andthroughout the house, fearsome creatures of smoke and shadowdissolved, leaving only a thick, oily residue to show where they hadbeen. Barbara flipped open her cell phone. "Barb here. Yeah, thosemeddling kids won't be coming back for some time."

Among the more freakish psychic phenomena, Ectoplas-mic Generation coalesces the stuff of spirits — plasm — into atangible form. Through force of will and personality, the psychictugs on ghostly energies and makes them solid. Most often, thismanifests as a mucusy gel, though skilled psychics can disperseit or concentrate it to make oddly glistening webs, sticky vaporsand the like. Such creations are rather disturbing and corre-spond to no known physical chemistry; indeed, ectoplasm tendsto "dissolve" into the nothingness of the Underworld after ashort time and defies scientific analysis.

For wraiths, all ectoplasmic creations are solid. Theycannot pass through ectoplasmic mists. Psychics who attackwraiths with ectoplasmic entities do full damage to theghosts, although they would need some way of perceiving thedead in their "Shadowlands."

Roll: Charisma + Occult• The Big Sneeze: The psychic can summon up some

strands of snotty material. The ectoplasm created by thispower wells out of the psychic's orifices or follows in thewake of her touch, leaving slimy, glistening trails. Eachsuccess scored causes the psychic to leave a slime trail thatlasts for one turn. This goo is disturbing and nasty but has nodeleterious effects. Summoning up this goo only has a diffi-culty of 5. The psychic can also vaguely summon ectoplasmicfog. The thick white mist boils out of the psychic's eyes, noseand mouth. This cloud generated is vaguely sphetical andhas a diameter of about five feet, plus one foot in diameter persuccess rolled in generating it. The cloud hangs in midair infront of the psychic and does not move. The cloud slowlydissolves, leaving oily, viscous goo behind. In still air, thecloud lasts two turns, plus one turn per success rolled. A stiffwind will disperse the cloud in half the time. The difficultyto raise such a cloud is only 6,

• • The Mists: The psychic's control of the ectoplasmiccloud coalesces and the cloud begins to obey the commandsof the summoner. The cloud no longer disperses in wind andlasts as long as the summoner concentrates on it. If kept ina sphete, the fog would have a radius of five feet, plus one footper success rolled in generating it. However, the psychic hasrudimentary control over the shape of the fog, though it ismerely basic control. No complex shapes can be formed, yet.The cloud initially appears in front of the psychic, though

Ectoplasmic Generation

96 SORCERER

the cloud can move five feet per round, if the summonerdesires. Once the psychic's concentration lapses, the clouddissolves in five rounds. Difficulty is 7,

• • • "A Fog So Thick...": By investing a greater portionof her will in the ectoplasmic cloud, it becomes solid to thetouch. The cloud itself feels like cotton candy and requiresa Strength roll (difficulty 6) to pass through. If the rollsucceeds, the character travels at one-quarter of normalspeed. Attacking the fog wirh normal weapons rarely doesany good. Bullets, blades and fists may shift the solid ecto-plasm, but cannot break it down. To generate the fog, theplayer rolls against difficulty 8. The fog appears in front of thesummoner and does not move. The psychic shapes theectoplasmic wall at the time of creation, though the totalvolume of ectoplasm would be a sphere with a radius of fivefeet plus one foot for every two successes rolled. The cloudremains solid so long as the psychic concentrates upon it.When concentration lapses, the cloud remains (though nolonger solid) for three rounds.

• • • • Dream Shaper: The psychic's greater control ofher ectoplasm allows her to mold it into complex shapes.The ectoplasmic creation may look like anything the psy-chic wishes, though the ectoplasm remains a dull whitecolor. The summoner creates the shape near her. Rollagainst difficulty 8. Once created, the shape moves at 10yards per turn. During creation, the psychic gets one pointfor every success rolled to divide among the creation'sphysical characteristics.

(Example: Matthew gets 4 successes to generate the ecto-plasmic creature. He has four points to divide among the threephysical characteristics. Because he wants the creation to pickup and carry his groceries, he gives it two points of Strength andtwo of Dexterity. It has a Stamina of zero, so any damage, evenbashing damage, causes the creation to dissipate.)

The dense ectoplasm takes bashing damage from bulletsand cutting weapons and lethal damage from impacts andfire (or other environmental effects). Its bashing soak isdetermined by its Stamina, and it has no lethal soak. It hasthree bashing health levels. If the creation takes any lethaldamage (including lethal damage from bashing overflow), itdisappears. The creation is a puppet, controlled by the willof the psychic. It cannot travel outside of the psychic'sperceptions or perceive anything the psychic does not per-ceive. If the psychic's concentration lapses, the creationvanishes in a puff of smoke.

• • • • • Tulpa: By a powerful investment of mentalenergy, the psychic creates an ectoplasmic extension of hiswill. Unlike the Dream Shape, the Tulpa possesses rudimen-tary intelligence. The psychic spends a point of Willpowerand rolls Charisma + Meditation (difficulty 7). The psychiccan spend additional points of Willpower and create theTulpa as an extended action. Every success generates 3points. The points can be spent as:

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 97

Dot of Physical Attribute 1 pointDot of Mental Attribute 2 points(cannot exceed the creator'sMental Attributes)Health level 1 pointExtra senses 1 point(the creation gets one senseat creation if given any Mental

characteristics)Extra movement 1 point / yard(the creation flies as fast asa person can run, basedon its Dexterity without aninvestment of points)

Psychic Hypnosis"Look into my eyes, Mr. Reed. Now relax. And... sleep."

Jane looked at her watch, glad that Mr. Reed was the last clientof the day. "You don't want to smoke anymore. Smoking is badfor you. When you think of smoking, you will fell ill." Jane pickedup her book and let her client sit there, still in a trance. The clientsdidn't believe she had done anything if she took five minutes to helpthem, no matter what the results were. She started to read hernovel but looked up after only a paragraph. "Oh, and Mr. Reed.Pay your bill on time."

Many hypnotists promise results. Some even producethem. Psychics with hypnotic powers dwarf the abilities ofthe best carnival hucksters. Though their abilities lack thespeed of a vampite's mental commands or the effects of theMind Sphere, hypnotic psychics achieve many of the sameresults, with enough time and effort.

Roll: Manipulation + Expression• Trance State: The hypnotist can place a willing subject into

a hypnotic trance. While in the trance, the subject's memoriesbecome clearer. He may also exhibit greater control of his physiol-ogy. Though the hypnotist cannot command the subject, the personin the trance automatically becomes relaxed and restful. He may (atthe Storyteller's discretion) regain one point ofWillpower for everytwo successes the hypnotist achieves. The psychic may, if shechooses, hypnotize herself. Roll against difficulty 6 in either case.Placing the subject in a trance takes five turns. The subject will comeout of the trance if shaken or disturbed.

• • Sideshow Suggestion: After placing the subject in adeep trance (which takes the usual five turns), the hypnotistmay command the subject to perform actions while in thetrance state, each command taking a round. In the trancestate, the subject will perform any action he would not beopposed to doing. Additionally, the entranced subject hasfar greater control of his autonomic responses. A hypnotizedperson could walk on hot coals, require less oxygen tobreathe or even ignore wound penalties. The hypnotistcould also cause the subject to forget previous actions thathappened in the trance state. Roll difficulty 6 for simplecommands, difficulty 7 for embarrassing commands and to

98 SORCERER

forget actions that happen while hypnotised, difficulty 8 forcontrolling pain response. The subject will not come out ofthe trance until the hypnotist commands.

••• Delayed Action: The subject of the hypnotist'spowers now performs actions commanded once the trancehas been broken. The psychic implants any command orimproved memory recall from the lower levels of hypnosis,but this time, it is programmed to happen at a certain time.The commands are implanted as with Sideshow Suggestion,but the difficulty is raised by one. Every success on the rollgives the hypnotist one command to implanr. Each extracondition requires a success as well. It takes five turns tohypnotize the subject, plus one turn per command to pro-gram them. The hypnotist can make one of the commandsto be to instantly fall into a trance state at a later time.

Example: The Amazing Steve hypnotizes Denise, amember of the audience. He rolls three successes on hisattempt to hypnotize Denise. He then orders her that, whensomeone says the word "rabbit," she will jump on one foot(the first success), say the word "duck" (the second one) andthen fall back into a trance (the third one). He could alsohave told her to jump on one foot when someone says"rabbit" (the initial success) and then when someone saysthe word "carrot" (a second condition, requiring a success)to spin in place (the third success).

•••• Fast Trance: At this stage, the hypnotist hasbecome so adept at inducing trances, that he, by a powerfulact of will, may do so with a glance. This costs one Will-power, and the player must make the normal roll at adifficulty of the subject's Willpower. If the effect succeeds,the subject is entranced for one round per success, While thetarget is in a trance, the hypnotist can then use any of theother lesser hypnotic powers on the subject.

• •••• Manchurian Candidate: With this ability, thepsychic can perform major amounts of brainwashing on thetarget. With this level of deep programming, the subject will doanything the hypnotist commands, even to the point of death.The target must be placed in a trance, which takes 10 minutes(and may not he done with a Fast Trance). After that, thehypnotist spends an hour per command implanted program-ming the subject. Spend two Willpower and roll Manipulation+ Leadership (difficulty 7 for commands that are simply againstthe target's morals, difficulty 9 for commands that lead to thesubject's death). As in the Delayed Action power, the numberof commands and the number of conditions attached to themdepend on the number of successes.

Mind ShieldsIn the dark alley, the pale man leaned over, looked Grace in

the eyes and said, "Don'tresist."

With glassy eyes she returned his gaze. "I don't think so," sheanswered, the slack look disappearing from her face. The paleman's eyes widened for just an instant, then froze in horror. Witha meaty "slurp" the stake slid into his chest. Grace snickered at thetransfixed vampire. "Haven't you heard? It's 'Take Back TheNight' night." With one finger, she poked the vampire, who

toppled over. She reached into her pocket far a lighter. "Wait 'tilyou see my candle."

Some psychics' possess shields that protect their mindsfrom mental attacks, be they psychic assaults, vampiric Domi-nation, magic spells or other ensorcelment. The discipline ofthe psychic's mind, die confusion of his thoughts or just someinnate talent makes him resistant to outside influence.

This resistance only affects assaults on the psychic'smind. It would not, for instance, keep a telekinetic fromlifting her or a pyrokinetic from burning her. The psychiccan lower these defenses, though opening them to a friendlypsychic leaves her just as open to a simultaneous mentalattack. At Level Three and above, the psychic may differen-tiate between "friendly" and "hostile" contacts and use theshields against some while allowing others to penetrate.

When someone mentally attacks a psychic with MindShields, the target gets to roll a number of dice (difficulty 6)as a counter-roll. These successes subtract from the effect. Ifthe defender gets more successes than the attacker, theattack fails. If a psychic assault normally gets a defense roll(such as attacks using the Mind Sphere), the psychic addsthe dice in Mind Shields to her defense pool instead.

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 99

Level•• •

• ••

• •••

• ••••

Versus Psychic Powers

2 dice

4 dice

6 dice

8 dice

10 dice

Versus Other Mental Attacks

1die2 dice3 dice4 dice5 dice

PrecognitionIn an opulent comer office, the Vice-President for Acquisitions

spoke on the speakerphetne with his broker. "You must be mad,Chase. Magadan's climbing like King Kong. We can't sell now."

The tired voice on the speaker answered, "And the bubble isgoing to burst, Mr. Vice-President. Late today, early tomorrowat the latest. You're going to take a bath on this. I'm trying to tellyou, but you're not going to listen."

The Vice-President smiled, "Chase, you and the folks atInsight always steered me straight, but I have an MBA fromHarvard Business School, I know what I'm doing. I'll talk to youtomorrow." He hung up the phone.

In his Insight Investments office, Chase sighed again. "Iknew he was going to say that."

One of the rarer psychic talents is that of precognition, andonly the singular talent approaches the clarity of vision foraccurate prediction. Seeing the future is difficult, as the prob-abilities shift with each action. The best psychics travel the mostaccurate probability tracks, but no seer (except for the fabledCassandra) has seen the future with 100 percent accuracy.

Roll: Perception + Awareness• Intuition: The psychic has yet to develop a clear view

of future events. However, his perception of what is yet tocome begins to take shape. Generally speaking, the powergives him a bit more luck than the average person, makinghim a good guesser. Predictions for random events (lotto

numbers, roulette numbers) can be quite accurate. Addi-tionally, guesses in other situations can be equally accurate.He could choose the shortest route to a place or know thatone person is "right" for another. Roll Perception + Aware-ness (difficulty 7). The more successes, the better his guesseswill be. Predictions will rarely be 100 percent accurate, evenwith five or more successes on the roll,

• • Insight: The psychic possesses the ability to induceprecognitive dreamlike visions. These visions are neverliteral interpretations of the future but metaphoric impres-sions of what is to come. An enemy might be revealed as ablack knight or an evil gunslinger. A new friend mightappear as a guide dog. The form of the dream generallydepends on the mindset of the psychic. A New Age crystalreader's visions would differ from those of a Wall Streetfinancier. The detail of the vision depends on the number ofsuccesses the player rolls on a Perception + Awareness(difficulty 7) roll. The more successes rolled, the moreaccurate the vision is, though it remains a metaphor.

Example: Chase, a financial counselor for Insight Invest-ments attempts to see if a certain tech stock is going to do well inthe upcoming quarter. He rolls 3 successes on his Perception +Awareness roll. That's a "complete success" so the vision shouldbe accurate. The Storyteller decides to tell him that he sees a robotwith the company logo climbing a silicon mountain. The robotloses its grip at one point but then continues up the mountain. Thestock is going to dip in value in the future but will rally back andcontinue to increase in value.

• • • Danger Sense: The psychic's perceptions of thefuture give her a psychic early warning system. This mani-fests as raised hackles, tingling sensations, flashes of violenceor some other system, but it's usually consistent for a givenpsych ic — one might have flashes while another has cramps,but they both always have the same sign.

This ability remains up all the time, though Anti-Psychic (or certain Time and Mind magics) can suppress orsubvert the talent. If the character is about to be in danger(perhaps someone is laying in ambush or a weak link holdingan overhead chandelier is about to snap), the Storytellerrolls Perception + Alertness (difficulty 6) and consults thetable below.

dive for cover, etc.) This allows the char-acter a dodge even against an ambush.

Three The character knows she is indanger, howto avoid it and the exact source of thedanger. This allows a dodge with a one-point bonus on the difficulty and gives thepsychic a "feeling" of the direction of thetrap or attacker for a moment.

Four The character knows the details of thedanger and has an extra turn of warning.In effect, the danger actually happens oneturn later. This gives the psychic a turn toact, prepare, fall back, whatever,

Five The character also gets a psychic impres-sion of the person responsible for thedanger, if any. She would recognize theperson should she see him.

• • • • Show Me the Cards: Though accurate predic-tions of the far future remain out of the character's grasp, shedoes have an almost perfect view of the immediate future.Roll the usual Precognitive ability (difficulty 8), every suc-cess allows her to see one turn into the future. All otherplayers and the Storyteller must announce their generalfuture plans and goals for as many turns as the precog rolled.If, by knowing the future, the precog changes her plans, thenthe future is changed, and thus, the character would have totry again to see what new plans would be made. For instance,in the middle of a firefight, the precog ducks behind cover,no longer making herself a target to a sniper. The sniper hadannounced his intent to shoot at the psychic, but since sheis no longer a target, the sniper does not have to keepshooting at an impossible target — the future diverges to adifferent possibility due to the psychic's interference.

• •••• Clear Vision: Few precognitives progress thisfar in their ability to see the future. With Clear Vision, thepsychic can accurately predict the most probable one. Theplayer rolls Perception + Awareness (difficulty 8). Thefuture as seen is likely to happen but can be changed by theactions of the precog. The character can elect to see her ownfuture, the future of the immediate surroundings or the futureof a person or object touched. The distance into the futureperceived is:

Obviously, giving concrete information about the fu-ture can be difficult for the Storyteller. Instead of givingvague information about the story, it may work better if theprecog's player instead gains some additional chances torerolt tasks — one rerotl for the story for each success scoredon the Precognition roll. This represents the psychic foresee-

100 SORCERER

Number of Successes

Botch

None

One

Two

Effect

The character remains unaware of thedanger and is distracted by a hunch orfeeling that places the character in aninconvenient situation — perhaps hesi-tating right in the perfect line of fire for anambusher or the like.

The character's danger sense simply fails.No special intuition warns the characterthis time.

The character knows she is in danger, butnone of the details of the specific danger.

The character knows she is in danger andwhat she should do to avoid it. (Duck,

Successes

OneTwoThree

Four

Five

Six+

Time span

The next 12 hours

The next day

The next week

The next month

The next year

One additional year per success

ing the future and preparing appropriately. Naturally, thispower is usable only once per story.

Psychic HealingThe trauma room echoed with shouting. A seven-car pileup

on the expressway proved an inevitable law of physics. Carsversus people: People lose. In the midst of the chaos, SanitaryEngineer Irma Perez, invisible in her tan uniform, wiped the browof a crying six-year-old. "Sera toda la adecuada, pequeqamuchacha." She looked around and, since nobody was payingattention, laid her hand on the girl's brow and prayed to theBlessed Virgin. The girl's raspy breathing eased. "Vaya a dormir."The little girl smiled and fell into a healing sleep. CountyGeneral's ER had a remarkable recovery rate, though only oneperson knew the reason why.

Psychic healers are a rare breed, even among the gifted.The ability to heal is both a blessing and a curse. These powerscan become a problem for the psychic, though, as she becomesa target to people seeking her miraculous aid or becomes huntedby the medical establishment for practicing medicine withouta license. Still, psychic healing does accomplish incredible feats;with contact, the psychic banishes pain and directs the body tospeed its natural recovery or even to fight off infections ordiseases with intelligent direction.

Many psychics with this talent have a great deal ofmedical skill, though rarely via formal training. Most alsohave a strong empathy with other humans and a tendency tofeel the pain and suffering of others.

Should the player botch while the psychic heals some-one, the character may heal the wound improperly (fusingbones out of alignment, requiring that they be re-broken) ormay inadvertently transfer the injury or disease to himself.The victim might even suffer a worse condition brought onby the psychic misdirecting the body's healing propertiesand causing cancerous or poisonous results.

Roll: Perception + Empathy• Diagnosis: Though unable to heal at this talent,

psychics with this power possess the ability to instantlydiagnose disease and injury in a person. This ability to sensewhat is wrong does not give him the ability to cure theproblem, but it does allow psychics with medical training(formal or otherwise) to suggest the most efficient cures. Apsychic healer without medical training finds it difficult toexplain to doctots what the problem is; for instance, hemight see AIDS as "the body does not want to fight thesickness anymore." Roll Perception + Empathy (difficulty6). The number of successes determines the accuracy of thediagnosis. If the psychic has medical training, the player mayadd any Diagnosis successes to the dice pool of a subsequentMedical roll.

• • A Good Night's Sleep: The psychic has the abilityto accelerate the body's natural healing processes with atouch. This takes approximately a minute, and the psychicgenerally lays hands on the subject, "aligning chakras" orsimply massaging the injured area. At the end of the minute,

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 101

the player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 7). If theplayer succeeds, the subject is considered to be treated by a"highly skilled physician (4 + dots in Medicine)" for thepurposes of healing times, (see page 247, Mage Revised). Ifthe player scores more than 3 successes, the subject alsorecovers a point of Willpower.

• • • Basic Healing: The psychic's ability to knit woundsand cure disease has expanded. The healer can heal bashingdamage and cure simple diseases or poisonings (Level Threetoxins or less, see page 248, Mage Revised). Roll Perception+ Medicine (difficulty 7). Each success cures one level ofbashing damage. Every two successes reduce the effects of atoxin by one level. It takes a turn per wound level for thehealing to take effect.

• • • • Triage: At this level, the psychic can knit brokenbones, close serious wounds and cure potent diseases. RollPerception + Medicine (difficulty 7) and spend 1 point ofWillpower. This is spent before the roll. Each success healsone lethal wound level or reduces any disease or poison oftoxin rating 4 or less by one level. This takes 10 minutes perwound level; such recovery is noticeably swift and unusual,though in the case of a seriously injured patient, it mightsimply stabilize a critical wound and prevent death.

• •••• Psychic Surgery: The psychic empathicallyreaches his hands into the body of a person, allowing him toremove cancers or infections from the body. The psychic cancure diseases up to toxin rating 6. Roll Perception + Medi-cine (difficulty 8). The process takes 10 minutes times thetoxin rating of the disease. The healer can also use this talentto harm as well as heal. This power cannot be used in combatas it takes too long, but the psychic can reach into a healthybody and remove healthy tissue. Roll Perception + Medicine(difficulty 7). Each success causes a level of unsoakableaggravated damage. The psychic simply places his handsagainst the subject's flesh and concentrates; in some cases,blood may well out of the flesh or the psychic's fingers mayappear to dig into the body itself. At the end, the psychic istypically left with a handful of bloody tissue.

Psychic Invisibility"Let me get this straight, Fred, and remember that we have

it all on tape. This guy, dressed in a ski mask and trench coat,walks in, goes right past the security desk, comes back with over10,000 dollars in company property, sticks you the finger andwalks out the door, and you didn't see a thing?"

"I swear to God, chief, I didn't set him.""Right, Fred. Come on. What's your partner's name? Give

him up, and things will go easier for you.""I don't know him. I didn't see anyone that night. I swear."Psychic Invisibility could be considered a form of mass

hypnosis. The psychic broadcasts to everyone nearby thesimple subconscious command "don't notice me." This ef-feet does not apply to electronic or other recording media,though people in the area but observing through electronicmeans (like a TV cameraman looking through the viewfinder

of the camera or someone wearing night-vision goggles) willnot see the invisible psychic.

This is not true invisibility. If an invisible psychic standsin front of something, people in the area will not be able tosee what is behind the psychic. Those who expect to seesomething in a specific area but discover that they can'tmight start to notice that something is wrong — or theirminds may give up completely and change their attention toa different subject!

Animals, whose minds work on a different level thanhumans, are unaffected by the invisibility effect unless thecharacter also has Animal Psychics. Beings with heightenedperceptions actively searching for the psychic may attempta contested roll to perceive the psychic with their talents.

Typically, the player's roll for this talent determines thestrength of the concealment. With only one success, thecharacter is still noticeable but people tend to avert theireyes or have trouble focusing on him. With three or moresuccesses, the psychic is completely unnoticed by mostonlookers. Note that Mind Shields do protect against thisvery specific form of mental control.

Roll: Wits + Stealth• Hide: The psychic's "don't notice me" broadcast keeps

him from being seen so long as he remains completely still.Under normal circumstances, no roll is required. However,if someone is searching the area where the psychic is hiding,he rolls Perception + Stealth (difficulty 6). If he succeedsand the target has no special senses, the psychic remainsinvisible. If the psychic moves, speaks or does anything togive away his position, the effect is broken.

•• Slow Movement: The psychic has enough control of hisgrowing talent to attempt to move while maintaining theinvisibility effect. Maintaining the effect counts as an action interms of splitting dice pools (see page 215, Mage Revised). Healso cannot do things that would draw attention to him withoutlosing the effects of the power. The psychic could walk across aroom, but he couldn't punch someone. The act of interactingwith the rest of the world cancels the effect. To avoid the noticeof people searching the area, the psychic's player rolls a con-tested roll Wits + Stealth (difficulty 6) versus the targets'Perception + Alertness (difficulty 6). Ties go in favor of theinvisible psychic. If the targets accumulate more successes thanthe psychic's player, they know vaguely where the psychic is bynoticing the absence of perception in that area ("something'sfunny in that corner"), but they still cannot directly see thepsychic.

••• Invisibility: At this level, the psychic's ability towalk about unnoticed is such that he can walk around andbehave normally. He can even perform actions that wouldnormally draw attention to him. The only limitation to thepower is that he cannot vanish from view while beingobserved. However, he could create some sort of distractionthat would draw another's eyes away momentarily, givinghim that split second needed to vanish. People with mun-dane perceptions searching for the invisible psychic must

102 SORCERER

roll Perception + Alertness (difficulty 9), opposed by a Wits+ Stealth (difficulty 6) roll on behalf of the psychic. Thosewith supernatural perceptions (the Auxpex Discipline, theHeightened Senses Gift, etc.) can attempt to use them,though the power is again resisted by a Wits + Stealth(difficulty 8) roll.

• • • • Selective Invisibility: The psychic now has enoughcontrol of his talent to allow select others to see him whileinvisible. The character is invisible as in the previous levelof the power. However, if the player succeeds on a Wits +Empathy roll (difficulty 7), the psychic can selectively allowone person per success rolled to perceive him while the restof the world ignores his presence.

• • • • • Forget You Ever Saw Me: The psychic's talentfor going unnoticed is powerful enough to not only "vanish"while in plain sight, but those who did see him forget thepsychic was there in the first place. The psychic rolls Wits +Stealth (difficulty 7) opposed by the highest Perception +Alertness (difficulty 7) total in the group, A tie goes to theobservers, who continue to see the psychic. If the psychicscores a single net success, he vanishes from view. (Thisshould certainly unnerve the observers.) If he scores 3 ormore successes, he vanishes from view, and people who hadseen him forget his presence for one previous turn for everytwo successes scored, in effect losing track of the psychic'slocation completely.

Example: Bruce is surprised by a security guard whileexploring a secure Magadon complex. He immediately attemptsto disappear and scores 4 net successes on his opposed roll with theguard. Since this was more than 3 net successes, he not onlyvanishes from, sight but the guard forgets the past two turns ofBruce's presence. Since Bruce had just met him, the guard forgetsthe whole encounter.

Carol sat in the staff meeting, counting the seconds as theycrawled by. She looked down at her coffee cup despondently. Nothingwas left in the mug. She bit down a yawn, let the air hiss through hernose and hoped nobody else noticed. Looking around the table, she felta brief surge of satisfaction knowing that everyone else looked as badas she felt. Maybe it's one of those bugs that goes around the officeand hits everyone, she thought. Everyone except for Tommy, the"efficiency expert" who clicked the remote control and went to thenext page of his interminable presentation. He smiled a plastic smileand continued. God, thought Carol, it's like he sucks the life rightout of you.

Most psychic talents are tools. They can be used for thebenefit of others or to harm, depending on the moral char-acter of the psychic. Psychic vampirism is the exception tothe rule. Whether the talent shapes the psychic or thepsychic shapes the talent is the subject of many a late-nightdiscussion among the gifted, but psychic vampirism tends tobring out the worst in people. In addition to the debilitatingeffects it has on the target, it produces a euphoria in thepsychic, a mental rush that nothing else compares to. The

psychic literally drains away emotion from his victims, or insome cases, actual living energies, converting them intoenergy for himself. The psychic vampire often becomesaddicted to the sensation — feeling a rush from the draw anddesiring the extra energy, vibrance and emotion granted.

Roll: Manipulation + Empathy• Rush: The psychic vampire feeds off strong emotion,

The emotions can be positive (joy, happiness, love) ornegative (fear, hatred, greed), though the vampire tends tofind it easier to generate negative emotions. The vampirerolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty 6) to "feed" off iheemotions. This provides no concrete benefit to the vampire,though it provides a rush of power. Depending on the Natureof the character, this may allow him to recover lost Will-power, though it is recommended that the player score atleast 3 successes on the roll for that to occur. The psychicmust be close to the target (within 10 yards) and able to senseher to feed. The target may feel unsettled by the process, asthe effect tends to mute her emotions. However, it does notremove the emotion itself and could not be used, for in-stance, to calm down an angry person. The vampire can usethis ability to monitor the emotions of the subject, though hedoesn't have an accurate gauge of the subject's emotionsuntil he starts the drain.

• • Sapping the Will: The drain effect sharpens here. Thevampire's leech ing of life energy saps the will of the target whileinvigorating his own will. The psychic rolls Manipulation +Empathy (difficulty is the target's current Willpower), and thetarget rolls a reflexive Willpower roll (difficulty 6). If thepsychic succeeds, he drains one point of temporary Willpowerfrom the target and adds it to his own store of temporaryWillpower. The extra Willpower can exceed the psychic'snormal maximum Willpower (up to 10 total temporary Will-power). While the character has more than normal Willpower,he feels invigorated, akin to a drug high. The excess Willpowerfades at one point per hour. This talent can be used at a rangeof up to 10 yards.

••• Energy Transference: The vampire's ability toleech life energy now allows him to invigorate himself and toheal minor injuries with stolen life force. This requires thevampire to touch the subject for a turn. The psychic's playerthen rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty 7). Eachsuccess causes a level of bashing damage to the target andheals a level of bashing damage that the psychic has taken.If the psychic is fully healed when this occurs, each bashinglevel absorbed restores 2 points of Willpower. The subjectdoes get a soak roll, and soaked levels of damage do notbenefit the psychic,

• ••• Life Leech: This dangerous talent allows thepsychic to leech away vital life energies from the target,healing any damage the psychic may have taken and givingan emotional high without compare. The psychic mustmaintain physical contact with the target for one turn perdamage level absorbed and then rolls Manipulation + Empa-thy (difficulty 8). Each success does one level of lethaldamage to the subject. This will heal one level of damage

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Psychic Vampirism

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(bashing or lethal) or turn one level of aggravated damageinto lethal damage. If the character is fully healed when heleeches life energy, each damage level absorbed provides thecharacter with 3 points of Willpower.

••••• Emotional Vortex: The psychic's ability toabsorb energy has progressed to the point where he can affectmultiple targets at once. The psychic must have used one ofthe lesser powers (or a form of Empathy or Telepathy) on thetarget once to make the link to the target's emotionaltemplate. After that, the psychic can use the Level One orLevel Two powers on the target at will. The range at whichthe psychic can drain the target depends on number ofsuccesses the player scores on the power roll (see below).Successes RangeOne Line of sightTwo A one block radius, and the psychic does

not have to see the targetThree In the immediate neighborhoodFour Anywhere in the cityFive Anywhere in the county

PsychokinesisDanny ran into the home, tears streaming dawn his cheeks.

His mother stooped over and scooped up her child, "What's thematter, honey?"

"The other kids hate me," he wailed,"They don't hate you," she replied soothingly."Yes they do! They say I don't play X-men the way they do.""Ok, now that's just silly. It's okay, sweetie." Danny's

mother continued to soothe her crying son. Danny just didn'tunderstand why they wanted to move the super-hero toys withtheir hands. How was Archangel supposed to fly if you wereholding him?

Psychokineses (also called "telekinesis") is a powerfuland potent psychic ability. The ability to move thingswithout touching them has endless possible uses. Thoughfew psychokinetics possess the strength to do more thanmanipulate small objects, a skilled psychic can remotelyexert terrific force or delicately perform various operations.

Vampires vs. VampiresPsychic vampires find actual vampires (the blood-

sucking creatures of the night) tasty treats. The strongemotions and hungers of the vampire provide a sharp,almost hallucinatory experience. The difficulty to useany Psychic Vampirism effect on an actual vampire isreduced by two. However, vampires are a dangerousform of prey, and only the most powerful (or foolish)psychic vampires hunt the blood-drinkers. Many vam-pires have their own supernatural awareness and won'thesitate to feed very literally on someone who assaultsthem psychically.

(Unskilled psychics, like those with certain Flaws, may notbe so lucky...).

If she has sufficient strength to lift a living creature, thetarget can (if it's aware of the psychic's intent to lift it) holdonto some thing sturdy to anchor itself and then roll Strengthversus mental strength. If the target has nothing to grab, itcannot resist.

A psychokinetic must be able to see the object shewishes to manipulate and must use a modicum of concentra-tion to manipulate an object. However, she can split herattention and lift multiple objects, so long as she dedicatesan action for each object lifted (see multiple-action penal-ties on page 215 of Mage Revised). The total weight liftedcannot exceed the psychic's usual lifting capacity.

If the psychokinetic attempts to wrest an object fromsomeone's grasp, make a contested roll pitting psychokineticStrength versus the target's physical Strength (difficulty 6).On a tie, both hold onto the object but neither has controlenough to wrest it away from the other. If the psychicattempts to manipulate the object in a specific way, use Witsfor purposes of accuracy or fine manipulation. Thus, apsychokinetic who remotely fires a gun uses Wits + Empathyto pick up and manipulate the gun, then Wits + Firearms tofire it.

Roll: Wits + Empathy• The psychic has an effective mental Strength of 0. She

can lift only a few pounds. She can move the object 5 + Witsyards/round,

• • The psychic's mental Strength is now 1, and she canmove the object at a velocity of 7+ Wits yards/round.

••• The psychic has a mental Strength of 2, and she canmove objects at a velocity of 9 + Wits yards/round

•••• The psychic's mental Strength is 3, and she canmove a levitated object at 11 + Wits yards/round. At this level,the psychic can levitate herself, regardless of weight. Due to theconcentration required to fly in this fashion, she may only moveat walking speed (7 yards/round).

• • • • • The psychic has a mental Strength of 4 and canmove objects at 13 + Wits yards/round. At this level, she alsogains a free "extra" object that she can move withoutsplitting her concentration,

Ashley picked up the case file and flipped through the pages.Ariel Handler, age 8. Missing since July 17th of last year. Jacketfound three days later, wadded up in a nearby field. In the box ather feet was the jacket, sealed in a plastic bag. Ashley pulled morethan a few strings to borrow the case file and the jacket from theevidence locker, Mrs. Handler's church was picking up the tab,since a single mother working two waitress jobs couldn't afford thepsychic. The case file told her what she already knew. No leads.No suspects. No real hope, Ashley looked down at the jacket inthe evidence bag. This was the part of her gift she hated. Sheopened the bag and rubbed her hands on the fabric. The imagesflowed into her.

Sobbing, Ashley put the jacket back into the bag. At least shehad a face. And the man with that face was going to pay.

Psychometry is the ability to pick up psychic residue left onobjects, places or people. Things exposed to strong emotionalsignatures hold flashes of information that a psychometric can"read" by touch. Particularly strong or violent emotions, likemurder, may even cause sympathetic reactions in the psychic—a feeling of rage, dread or other emotion imposed by theincredibly strong psychic Resonance.

When using Psychometry, the player's successes indi-cate the level of detail achieved. With many successes, acharacter will have longer, more vivid impressions andemotions. On a botch, a psychic may become lost in a dream-like reverie or even become overwhelmed by emotionalResonance, suffering injury or temporarily losing her person-ality and repeating the actions surrounding the object orplace touched.

Roll; Perception + Empathy• The character gets vague, dreamlike impressions of

recent activities involving the object or more distant activi-ties that involved strong emotions. In many cases, thereading gives just the feelings involved with the incident,instead of actual imagery. When imagery does appear (gen-erally with 3 or more successes), it is figurative and dreamlike.

•• In addition to the previous information gathered,the psychic gets an accurate mental image of the person mostclosely associated with the object.

• • • The psychic receives impressions of the strongestemotional incident involving that object. With 3 successes,she receives a dreamlike image of the incident, including thenumber of people involved and a description of the area. Ifconcentrating on the object's owner, she can determine theperson's approximate age, emotional state, hints of person-ality, and exactly what the individual felt at the time.

•••• The psychic can clearly visualize the event inquestion, as well as gathering general impressions of whathappened to the object's owner during the day the incidentoccurred. As an alternative, the psychic can simply replaythe past day of the object, even if there were no strongemotional events concerning the object that day.

• • • • • In addition to a clear picture of the event, thepsychic receives clear emotional impressions of the other peopleat the event, and gains insight into what they were feeling. Shereceives clear images of the people present. She also can use theobject as a psychic link to owner, allowing her to gain a generalimpression of where the owner is currently.

PsychoportationJack smirked as he looked at the display case. A hundred and

one sensors, sound detectors and more lasers than the new StarWars movie. "It's impossible to get into the case," the securityconsultant said. "The royal jewelry of Pharaoh Khufu is safe," hesaid. Jack smashed the glass with a hammer. The alarm noiseswould have deafened him, except for the earplugs he wore. Hereached in, grabbed the headpiece of the Staff of Khufu and

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 105

Psychometry

vanished. The security company was going to have a hard timeexplaining this one.

Note: Psychoportation is an extremely potent psychicpower. While there are certainly examples of teleportingpsychics in fiction, it may be more suited to a cinematic gameover a more low-key World of Darkness horror game. Story-tellers should consider all of the implications of having ateleporting character in the troupe before allowing thispower into their games.

Psychoportation is the ability to teleport oneself andone's immediate possessions over short distances withoutphysically crossing the intervening space. The psychic sim-ply "disappears" from one place and "reappears" in another.Whether the psychic disassembles and reassembles, warpsspace, travels astrally or finds some other form of motion,nobody knows — but here one moment, gone the next, thepsychic can often leap without a care for the laws of physics.

The teleporter can carry himself and a small amount ofpersonal possessions. No psychic has yet been able to jumpwith more than about 100 pounds of carried material —those trying to carry more tend to suffer some sort of psychicfeedback (as a general rule, inflict six levels of bashingdamage and go from there).

A botch during teleportation means that the psychichas landed inside a solid object. This does 8 dice of aggra-vated damage to the psychic and the object he accidentallyteleported into. Alternately, the psychic may poof away intoa more dangerous location, somewhere completely unknownor even without his clothes!

Roll: Perception + Alertness• Short Hop: The teleporter can teleport 12 + Intelli-

gence yards in a turn. He must be able to see (with his owneyes or mystical senses) the destination.

•• Simple Jump: The psychic's range for teleportationincreases to 20 + (3 x Intelligence) yards.

• • • Long ]ump: The teleporter can "jump" 40 + (6 xIntelligence) yards in a turn. He can double this distance byspending the previous turn concentrating and succeeding ona Perception + Meditation roll, difficulty 7.

• ••• Very Long Jump: The teleported range hasincreased to 80 + (12 x Intelligence) yards. He can doublethis distance by spending the previous turn in concentra-tion, as described previously,

• • ••• Blind Jump: Though the jumper's distance doesnot increase at this level, he no longer needs to see thedestination. He can teleport to a place he's familiar with. Tomemorize a location, the teleporter spends one scene in theplace, and the player expends a point of Willpower. Thelocation must be a stationary one. One cannot memorize alocation in moving train, for instance.

The young man sat in the cold room. He looked at the wall-length mirror, knowing there were people on the other side of it.

Watching. Waiting. "Screw you. I ain't doin' squat for you untilI see a lawyer."

A tiny voice answered him. "You don't get a lawyer. Youdon't get your mommy. You don't get anything." The voicepaused. "Not until we get what we want, 'Zippo.' The block, ifyou please." The temperature in the room dropped again, to echothe point.

Zippo scowled. "Fine." He snapped his fingers, and a sparkjumped between them. Over on the other side of the room, awooden block started to smolder. The spark he always felt whensomething burned danced in his stomach, and he forgot about thecold and imprisonment. He smiled for the firs t time since they hadbrought him in.

On the other side of the mirror, a man spoke into a cellularphone. "Yes, he'll be perfect. With the right controller, that is.Tell Marsh to start the ball rolling on this one."

Pyrokinesis is, quite simply, the ability to start fires withone's mind. The talent may well be an extension of psy-chokinesis—some ability to finely accelerate huge masses ofmolecules — or perhaps some sort of energy-transfer power,The pyrokinetic simply concentrates, and the temperaturegoes up... and up... and up... until the object melts or burstsinto flames.

Pyrokinetics are not immune to their own flames andbum as easily as anyone else. Botches with Pyrokinesis tendto be singularly spectacular, as the psychic self-immolates orsends flame shooting wildly about.

Roll: Manipulation + Meditation• Matches: The psychic can produce tiny sparks of

flame, generally only enough to light highly flammable items(paper, dry wood, gasoline, etc,). These sparks of flame tendto come from the psychic's fingers, though some pyros createthe sparks in different manners. The sparks light anythingthe psychic could physically teach, though the psychic doesnot have to actually touch the flammable material. Thesparks are not hot enough to seriously burn people, thoughhaving a spark of flame appear can startle people. If apyrokinetic wishes to startle someone with a spark, theplayer rolls Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 6) to fling thesparks at the target. The target must be in hand-to-handcombat range. This effect can be dodged by a Dexterity *Dodge (difficulty 6) roll. If the pyro hits the target, thetarget's player rolls Willpower (difficulty 6) or else thevictim loses his next action from the surprise. The target canspend a Willpower point to avoid this reflexive aversion tobeing burned.

•• Ignite: By concentrating, the pyrokinetic causesflammable matettals to burst into flame. The psychic canaffect anything within a short range (less than 10 yards),though some materials are easier to ignite than others. Thedifficulty is:4 Very easily lit materials (paper, gasoline, vampires)6 Flammable objects that normally require minor

assistance to light (wood, charcoal)

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Pyrokinesis

8 Objects that do burn with the aid of accelerents(clothing)

9 Materials that do burn, eventually (people)Once ignited, items continue to burn naturally. The fire

created is as big as a torch, though it could easily spread withthe proper materials around. See page 249 of Mage Revisedfor fire damage and the difficulty of soaking fires. If thepsychic tries to light a person on fire, the target may dodgethe effect by rolling Dexterity + Dodge (difficulty 6).

• • • Fireworks: The pyrokinetic's control of flames hasexpanded. Now he can create small bursts of flame out ofthin air. Psychic researchers believe that these bursts aremade up of super-excited air molecules. Tiny amounts of theair molecules become plasma, which will ignite just aboutanything that can bum, and create bonfire-sized fires. Thepsychic can create these plasma bursts at a range up toWillpower x 10 yards away. To create the plasma, rollManipulation + Meditation (difficulty 8). Targets roll Dex-terity + Dodge (difficulty 7) to dodge the fire bursts. Thebursts do two health levels of aggravated damage per turn(difficulty 8 to soak, for those with some sort of supernaturalresilience). To extinguish himself, the target must first rollWillpower (difficulty 5) to avoid panic and then Dexterity+ Athletics (difficulty 5) to put himself out. Highly-trainedoperatives or supernatural creatures can usually avoid pan-icking automatically (barring a fear of fire — Rotschreck, forinstance), at the Storyteller's discretion.

•••• Pyrotechnics: At this level, the pyrokinetic cannot only generate fire, but can control the path and shape ofthe fire. The difficulty depends on the size of the flame (4 fora torch, 6 for a bonfire, 8 for an inferno), modified by thecomplexity of the action attempted (0 to shift the direction,+ 1 to create gaps in the fire or to spread an existing fire, +3to diminish the flames). Roll Manipulation + Meditation.Thiscan also be used to create shapes in the flames (difficulty5 for simple forms, up to 9 for very complex shapes),

••••• Inferno: The pyrokinetic has immense andexacting control over all forms of flame. He can create largefires at a distance. The fires appear up to Willpower x 15yards away. The player rolls Manipulation + Meditation(difficulty 8). With one success he creates a small fire in thetarget area. With two successes, the fire is the size of abonfire, and with three successes, the fire fills up a largeroom. Everything in the area must soak the damage. Peopleon the edge of the effect can dive out of the fire. RollDexterity + Athletics (difficulty 6) to escape the flames. Thefire starrs out as hot as a "Bunsen Burner" (see page XX, MageRevised), though every additional success after the thirdincreases the heat of the fire by one category. The Infernospreads rapidly, consuming as much as it can before beingextinguished,

The four people sat in a circle on comfortable pillows. Theblond woman inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. "Okay , let's dothis." The four took each other s hands and followed the woman's

example. In the center of the four rested an unlit candle. "One,"she whispered, To her right, she felt her brother's will surge, andthe candle flickered into life. "Two." Across from her, the burlyman levitated the candle. It started to flutter with his unpracticedmental grasp, but her husband felt the candle slip and caught itwith his mind. "Three," she continued. They combined theirwith. The four started to rise off the floor. The candle remainedin place as the four slowly circled it. Then, as gently as theystarted, they lowered to the ground. The blond woman smiled."We did it." Her husband replied, "That was fantastic."

One of the rarest psychic abilities is the talent of psychicSynergy. Two or more psychics combine their abilities,giving the combined psychic gestalt more power than thepsychics using their talents individually. The synergist canlink together twice as many psychics in a mental metaconcertas he has dots in Synergy. The combined psychics must betouching each other to form the link.

Successes on a Synergy roll determine how many addi-tional people may be linked in a psychic task. Botches tendto cause psychic feedback — headaches, capillary burstingand the like. Sometimes psychic powers may activate uncon-trollably in such situations (imagine a reflexive blast ofPyrokinesis as the psychic's subconscious defends against abotched Synergy!).

Roll: Perception + Awareness• Psychic Sense: The psychic has the ability to sense

other psychics. This sense triggers automatically when thepsychic touches another psychic, or she can concentrate anduse it to sense other psychics in her line of sight. RollPerception +• Awareness (difficulty 6). With more than 3successes, the psychic also has a sense of the strength of thepsychic and the natural of his powers. This does not detectmages with the Mind Sphere or other supernatural creatureswho possess mental powers.

•• Share Will: At this level, the psychic can form basicpsychic links. By acting together, a group can use any psychicpower of any participant. The player with the Synergypsychic character rolls the other psychic ability as normal.However, the other members of the gestalt can each spenda point of their Willpower to boost the effectiveness of thetalent. The gestalt can only generate one shared effect at atime. If the gestalt is using some sensory power (Telepathy,Clairvoyance, etc.), the entire group receives the results ofthe power.

• • • Group Effect: The psychic network has grown suchthat, in addition to sharing Willpower, they can moreeffectively combine their wills, so that when the effect isrolled, the highest Attribute and Ability are used, even if thecontributing member lacks the power itself. Additionally, asbefore, each member can contribute a point of Willpower toadd extra successes.

Example: Bruce (who has Precognition 2, Perception 3 andAwareness 2), Deirdre (who has Telepathy 3, Perception 2 andAwareness 3) and Andrew (who has Synergy 4, Perception 4 andAwareness 2) combine their abilities to use Bruce's precognitive

Synergy

Chapter Five: Psychic Phenomena 107

abilities. The group will use Bruce's Precognition. Deirdre's Aware-ness and Andrew's Perception. One of the group rolls the 7 dice. andeach of them may contribute Willpower/or extra successes.

• • • • Share Powers: The psychic gestalt now allows thegroup mind to use multiple powers at once. Each member ofthe group can donate any two of the following to the effects:A power, an Attribute and Ability. Each member of thegroup can spend one point of Willpower for an extra success,though they can only spend one point of Willpower a round.

Example: Andrew (from the previous example, who also hasMeditation 4) is traveling with Michael (who has Meditation 3and Mind Shields 4) and Mira (who has Psychokinesis 3 and Wits4). They are attacked by a vampire who attempts to entrance thegroup. Andrew forms the gestalt. Michael donates his MindShields to the group. Mira donates her Psychokinesis ability andher Wits. Andrew adds his Meditation to the group. Now all ofthem have the Mind Shields of 4 protecting them and can resist thevampire with a Wits + Meditation pool of 8 dice.

• •••• Power Gestalt: Not only may the group usemultiple powers at once, they can combine powers. Eachmember combines powers as before, but they can nowcombine two or more powers into a single, shared power. Forexample, a clairvoyant and telepath could conjoin theirpowers, allowing them to view a person by clairvoyance andread the subject's mind at the same time.

TelepathyHanzo sat in the bar, sipping his drink. He wasn't too

handsome or too well dressed. He didn't have a lot of money,either. The guys from, work always wondered what his secret was.He sat at the bar for a while, looking over the noisy happy-hourcrowd. Eventually, he'd get up and start talking to some beautifulwoman. He knew what to say to make her laugh or how to cheerher up. The guys called him "the magic man" because once hestarted talking, the woman always went home with him.

"It's simple," he once confided in a friend. "You have toknow what she wants and give it to her. Same as sales. I sell to thepeople who are going to buy and leave the window shoppers to theother guys."

"But how do you know?" asked his friend.Hanzo just smiled and said, "Call it a knack."

In simplest form, Telepathy is the ability to read minds.The telepath must be able to sense the target to read thetarget's mind. The power is rarely so simple as reading textfrom a book, though — rather, a telepath senses impressionsand, with experience, learns to pick out subtexts, streams ofconsciousness, motives and eventually the sort of innermonologue or impulse that often drives a subject.

Some skilled telepaths can not only read minds, but canplant suggestions or speak with a "mental voice" in the mindof a target.

Successes scored on Telepathy generally determine theduration and accuracy. With one success, a psychic mightgrab a few words or impressions that relate in some way to aninteresting topic. With three successes, the character can

easily read a good several turns of useful information, and atfive or more successes, the character could cast about forspecific thoughts or memoties. The difficulty typically equalsthe subject's Willpower, and Mind Shields offer defense, asone might expect. A victim can generally spend a point ofWillpower to resist a telepathic compulsion,

Roll: Intelligence + Empathy• At this level the telegraph can feel basic emotions and

sense the current mood of the target. The telepath may beable to send a simple impulse or rudimentary thought to thetarget. A target could be induced to twitch or make a simpleor habitual gesture.

• • The character can now read the surface thoughts ofpeople, generally what they're thinking about at that mo-ment. The telepath can ptoject a single word or simple ideato a person or cause the subject to make one short motion.

• ••The character can read recent memories or plans forthe near future from people's minds. At this level, die telepath

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Telepathic Control,Projection and Sensing

For most World of Darkness games, Telepathy'spowers may seem too broadly applicable. In such a case,the Storyteller should divide the power into multiplecategories and have psychics buy each category sepa-rately. The power is simply listed as a unified one forconvenience. In practice, it's often best to divide Telepa-thy up as follows...

Telepathic 'Sensing: The basic ability to sense emo-tions or thoughts. (You could split this between Empathicand Telepathic Sensing, if you like, to divide senses ofemotions versus senses of thoughts.)

Telepathic Projection: The power to send ideas,emotions or thoughts into another person's mind. (Youcould also split this between Empathic and TelepathicProjection, if you like.)

Telepathic Control: Directly taking control of asubject's mind and forcing him to perform an action. (Youcould split this into Telepathic Control, allowing thecharacter to dominate a victim's physical actions, versusSensory Control, allowing the psychic to totally falsify thesensory input of the victim.)

Note that for some games, you might want to allow someof these powers, but not all. Experiment with combinations!For instance, you might decide in your chronicle that charac-ters simply take Telepathy as one power, and receive theabilities of Telepathic Sensing and Telepathic Projection, butthat there is no Telepathic Control. Or you might have agame with Telepathic Control as a separate power andTelepathic Sensing as well, but no Telepathic Projectionability. You can also have some fun by allowing some sorcerersto study variant Paths based on this: a Path of Command, forinstance, that duplicates Telepathic Control. Customize toyour heart's concent.

can send full sentences, strong, complex emotions or evenstreams of memory; with enough successes, a telepath might beable to implant false memory. The subject might be forced tobelieve false input from his senses or caused to take one unusualaction in a turn (like dropping a weapon or ducking for coverinstead of running away).

• • • • The character can read deep droughts and distantfuture plans. The amount of information he gets depends on thenumber of successes. Similarly, the psychic can send several

sen tencesof information, implant memories, cover upa memoryor even temporarily seize control of the subject's body for a turn.

• • • • • The character can discover the deepest secrets ofpeople, even things unknown to the target or repressed by him.So long as the telepath can somehow sense the target, he cansend his thoughts with complete clarity. With enough suc-cesses, the telepath can seize control of the victim, completelydominating his senses or his physical actions, rewriting memo-ries, altering personality and the tike.

Psychic OrganizationsUnlike sorcerous societies, which often stem

from some mystic impulse or drive to create aunified understanding of magical principles,psychics rarely gather into groups. Without anyunifying practices, they have little need to sharetheir techniques — there are few "rituals" that apsychic could teach or study, few tomes of erudi teknowledge and few scientists or financiers whowould bother. As a result, psychic organisationsoften lack the signature tools, styles or hierar-

chies of sorcerous groups. Rather, they tend to focus upon aspecific psychic phenomenon, a small group of acquaintances ora single authority figure who promotes study.

The Friends of FosterState magician Randy "The Fabulous" Foster is well known

for his sideline habit: debunking sideshow psychics and expos-ing frauds. A select group know him as something else, a friendto the real psychics. Seven years ago, Foster went to Lafayette,LA to investigate claims of a young boy, Richard Herbert(pronounced "hey-bare") who could see the future. The boyseemed troubled and withdrawn, but his powers appeared to passthe standard tests Foster used to expose charlatans. He was onthe verge of giving the boy's parents the $250,000 check hecarried for the first "real" psychic he met. Then he discoveredthe boy's parents were not just pushing him to use his gift morethan he was physically able to, but that they abused Richardwhen he "let them down."

Foster went to the police and made sure the parents wereput away for a long time. He adopted Richard, and the two ofthem began looking for more real psychics, ones in trouble.Ones they could help. In the years that followed, Randy andRichard have put together an "Underground Railroad" forpsychics in trouble. Randy has publicly given up his search forreal psychics, claiming he had spent enough time with fraudsand con men and wanted to get back into show business,Richard now appears in the act as Randy's assistant. The two ofthem do an excellent mind-reading act. It is an act, as Randywants to protect Richard from people would exploit his gift.

Insight InvestmentsInsight Investments is a fast-growing investment house

in Chicago. Investors seeking higher risk and higher reward

in the stock market flock to Insight. The Wall Street Journalonce referred to their ability to pay high-yield stocks "assomething akin to magic," President Chase Nixon keeps thearticle framed on his desk. People would be surprised at howclose to the truth the article is. Nixon possesses pre cognitiveabilities, which he uses on the stock market. After encoun-tering Jacob Anderson, a clairvoyant investor, the twodecided to pool their powers and resources to make evenmore money together. The firm's success came to the atten-tion of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which ledto it adopting a policy of losing money every once in awhilejust to lower its profile. The firm still makesobscene amountsof profits. Anderson now spends his time recruiting newpsychic talents for the firm instead of acquiring insiderinformation, A brush with the IRS convinced the firm toscale back its illegal activities, though it still occasionallybends the rules. There are no laws against seeing the future,after all. There are now six "gifted" members of Insight.

The Marsh InstituteTelepath and financier Howard Jennings Marsh made

his millions in real estate in the 1920s. A competitor of his(and precognitive) William Jefferson Smith came to him in] 928 with dire news. He had foreseen the impending stockmarket crash and needed assistance moving his millions intoprotected stocks. The two pooled their powers as well as theirmundane talents. As time progressed, other psychics whoused their powers to further their economic and politicalgoals joined the cabal. After Marsh's death in 1959, his (also-psychic) heirs established the Marsh Institute, aconservativethink-tank. Officially, the Institute is a research organiza-tion dedicated to studying social, medical and economicproblems and marketing the results to Congress, the newsmedia and key policy advisors. In truth, the Institute'sresearch offerings serve the interests of "the cabal," the aginggroup of psychics who use the Institute to further their needs.The medical branch of the Marsh Institute, in addition tosearching for cures for cancer, searches for other psychics.They recruit the psychics to work for the cabal, doing its dirtywork. Psychic agents of the Marsh Institute receive largepaychecks, incredible benefits and the protection of a pow-erful patron. Agents also tend to be incredibly loyal, eitherout of greed, blackmail or outright psychic coercion,

Chapeter Five: Psychic Phenomena 109

Chapter Six:Storytelling

Running an all-sorcerer chronicle is a littledifferent than your average World of Darknesschronicle. Most notable is the fact that thepower level is much lower. The ability tovanish into thin air or make people do what-ever you say is no longer ubiquitous, nor evenreasonably available. Sorcerers work hard forwhat powers they do have, and their powerstend to be much less earth shattering than

those of vampires, werewolves and mages.This requires something of a change in perspective on

the Storyteller's part. Even if you're accustomed to runningWorld of Darkness games, you'll want to put some thoughtinto your first Sorcerer game. Your Storyteller charactersshouldn't be as powerful as they would be in a regular Magegame. Your plots shouldn't require access to high-levelmagical abilities in order to be solved. You'll need to focuson

the human much more — on the use of Talents, Skills,Knowledges, Backgrounds and player abilities to solve things,rather than Spheres and Disciplines.

Making your Storyteller characters less powerful takesmore than the erasure of a few dots on a sheet. You may wishto use more humans and not-quite-humans as foils for thecabal, rather than ancient vampires and archmages. On asimplistic level, you can substitute kinfolk for werebeasts,acolytes and other sorcerers for mages, ghouls for vampiresand humans with changeling blood (called kinain) for actualchangelings. Or perhaps not — maybe your group would fitin with some fledgling vampires who aren't yet more humanthan human or some changelings who've just recognizedtheir potential.

You may find that personal plots take more of a frontseat, and epic plots become occasional high points ratherthan the focus of things. The power level has been ratcheted

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Chapter Six: Storytelling 111

down a notch or two, but this isn't a bad thing. The Worldof Darkness can be made once again amazing and new toplayers who may have become jaded to its wonders. You havethe chance to reveal things slowly, to make even the lowliestnewly Awakened mage a wonder to behold. The trick is inthe revelation: Never show everything at once. When womenused to wear only the longest of skirts, the briefest glimpse ofan ankle was considered incredibly sexy. Conceal the won-ders of your world similarly, occasionally showing an ankle,and they will become correspondingly amazing.

The CharactersYou should consider what sort of characters you wish to

work with. Are your players' characters a group of randomsorcerers who've come together through chance and circum-stance? Are they a cabal that has worked together for years?Are they a mentor and her students? Talk with your players.Any of these may be made to work, but they require differentapproaches. Random sorcerers need outside reasons to worktogether — does the plot force them together? Do some ofthem have background ties to each other, perhaps childhoodfriendships or mutual acquaintances? Will their styles ofmagic clash and cause a problem, or can they draw interest-ing personal conflict from their differences? If they're a singlecabal, they need to agree on a magical style, and there'sprobably a heavy overlap in magical skills. If they are amentor and her students, then one player is going to play topdog — is it someone who can handle that without irritatingother players? How will the other players handle being thelessers to another player's character?

One of the merits of a Sorcerer chronicle can be theinherently lower power level. You might take advantage ofthis to allow a player to play the not-quite-human he's beenwanting to play — after all, a ghoul, acolyte or kinfolk won'tbe nearly so out-of-place in the powergames now. You mighteven allow a purely human character without any sorcery atall to be played (although he should have some usefulabilities to allow him to keep up). A Sorcerer chronicleallows you to explore the less powerful and, thus, less power-centric creatures that populate the World of Darkness.

Try to draw on the specific characteristics of Sorcererfor your chronicle, those things that make it special: the slowsearch for knowledge; the sheer mystery, magic and enchant-ment of the World of Darkness; the sorcerer's unique vantagepoint smack in the middle of the food-chain. Allow yourchronicle to be a true Sorcerer chronicle, not just anotherWorld of Darkness run.

The Mood of Sorcery

and horror emerge when the sorcerer discovers the otherthings that live in the shadows of the World of Darkness orperhaps finds his own powers growing beyond what heexpected.

Remember to alter the mood of your chronicle some-times, Unrelenting horror is tiresome and loses its effect aftera while. The same is true of unrelenting angst or unrelentinganything. Even the darkest tragedies have moments of beautyand characters that make jokes. By bringing in a moment ofan "opposite" mood, you make the prevailing one seem allthe stronger, and you make it more effective.

You might choose a new mood for each story, or youmight change the mood depending on the scene. You mightdecide "tonight's game is going to be horrific," or you mightsay, "this story is all about loss and sadness." It's often a goodidea to consider the mood before the night of roleplayingbegins, so that you can be consistent about it. It also helpsyou to think of ways to increase the mood. Most of the thingsyou do to hold a mood should happen in game, but there area few out-of-game things you can do. If you've chosen horror,you might decide to light the room you're playing in bycandlelight to keep it dark and throw shadows on the walls.If sadness, you might keep the score from a sad movie playingquietly in the background.

If you aren't sure how to hold a certain mood, pick amovie that exemplifies that mood, and watch it. Examinewhere in the horror movie you feet fear, and figure out why.Note which scenes in the sad movie make you tear up, andagain, figure out why. Then use that. You can do the samething with books, television and anything else that causesyou to feel a distinct emotion. Different things affect peopledifferently; make lists of the tricks that movies and books useand slip them one-by-one into your games until you find theones that work on your players. Then try something else —if you overuse a trick, it may lose its effectiveness.

A strong mood is what gets players' hearts pumping and makestheir hands sweat. It's what grips them and causes an entire night ofroleplaying to go by in the blink of an eye. A strong mood can makethe difference between a fun story and one that captivates yourplayers and makes them clamor for more.

The mood of a Sorcerer chronicle may feel like any-thing you want it to feel like. Some of the moods you mayfind yourself returning to over and over, however, are terrorand excitement. Excitement is the mood often engenderedby the search for knowledge and the discovery of magic. Fear

Mood is often a part of theme, but a theme is larger than justa mood. A theme is usually captured in a few words, a phrase ora sentence. It might be "love at the cost of life" or "conflictdestroys happiness." If you're having trouble grasping the con-cept of a theme, then think of it as "the moral of the story" --except that it doesn't have to be a shiny-happy moralisticmessage. You might concentrate on a single theme for a story,or you might weave themes together just as you might allowvarious plots to go on side by side. Certainly, a chronicle or storydoes not have to have a theme; some are just damn good storieswith no message. And sometimes your players won't notice yourthemes. This is just fine; don't get tempted to hit them over the

Theme

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head with the message. Themes are still useful to you, whetheror not your players notice them. They help you to come up withnew types of plots. They help you to relate plots to each otherin unusual ways. They help you to keep a handle on mood andtone. And they also help you to teach the characters, to helpthem grow as "people."

Dangerous knowledge is one strong Sorcerer theme.Sorcerers, by their nature, seek knowledge — it's exceed-ingly rare to find a sorcerer whose ability is entirely thrustupon him and who has no desire whatsoever to develop it.But magical knowledge may be dangerous. The cabal maylearn a new ritual, only to find that this ritual's power comesfrom a dark entity that wants something from the characters.Or in their desire for new and greater power, they maydeliberately contact some foul creature. Or someone whoseems genuinely helpful, perhaps an older sorcerer, turns outto be leading them down the wrong path.

Self-discovery is another major theme in Sorcerer,Sorcerers may believe they study magic alone, but they mayalso learn a great deal about themselves along the way. Whensomeone threatens the people they care about, they maydiscover they have the stuff of heroes, or they may discoverthat they are cowards who would rather save their own skins.You might set up a story in which each sorcerer, through hismagic, is lead to realize something important which he didnot know about himself. When the ritual a sorcerer learnsrequires her to do something she finds repugnant, she maydiscover the strength of will to do it anyway — or thestrength of will to say no. A ritual may require a sorcerer toface his greatest feat and overcome it.

Protection of the innocent is a possible theme. Sorcer-ers aren't particularly powerful at low levels, but they'remuch more than normal mortals. They may choose toprotect those mortals around them. Do they protect peoplephysically? Do they protect innocence itself — trying tokeep mortals unaware of the dangers that lie around them?Do they protect humans from the supernatural or from otherhumans? Do they protect people from the simple ravages oflife and luck? If they're protecting humans from each other,then how do they decide who is in the right? If they protectpeople from the bad parts of life, then what do they do whentheir actions indirectly cause someone else harm? And ifthey're trying to make everyone happy, they should swiftlyrealize that they don't have the time or energy to helpeveryone. With a little subtlety, you could lead your partydown that path by having people ask them for help now andthen, until they find that's all they spend their time doing.How do they choose which people they should help andwhich they shouldn't?

The danger and the value of religion are both validthemes and may even be mixed in the same story. Religiouszealots are dangerous and may do terrible things with the bestof intentions. And yet, other religious zealots may truly helppeople. How do you choose? How do you determine which

religions and their followers are dangerous and which arenot? Especially when the good and the bad follow the samegod? Religion and sorcerous magic are, in some ways, similartopics—you might use this theme to show the sorcerers that,in a certain way, they are zealots as well, following their ownpersonal religion.

Revenge is another theme. Someone wants revengeagainst a person who hurt her, and a sorcerer is forced todecide to protect the offender. Why? The offender is a niceman and didn't intend to hurt anyone. Bring up this plot atthe same time that the sorcerer seeks revenge against some-one who hurt him, who did not do so intentionally, and letthe sorcerer see the parallels.

Curiosity and meddling make up another common set ofSorcerer themes. Most sorcerers are by nature curious folks,or they wouldn't have gotten mixed up in all of this magicalstuff. Let their curiosity involve them in all sorts of plots.There are innumerable variations on the curiosity theme.Curiosity is dangerous; curiosity leads to adventure andexcitement; meddling can get people killed; if you don'tmeddle, then you're as guilty as the criminals you didn't stopfrom murdering someone; and so on.

There are other themes to play with as well: the touchof magic; the vastness of the universe; the results of peerpressure (for good or ill); conflict with others, conflict withthe self, conflict with authority (and so on); the feeling ofbelonging; recruitment; responsibility; etc. I'm sure you cancome up with many more.

There is one thing you should think about, however,with each theme you entertain. No matter what the theme,you are teaching your characters a lesson. If they learn thatlesson, will they still be viable characters? If you put acharacter through a harrowing experience designed to showhim that meddling in other people's business can be deadly,then you may end up with a character so traumatized thathe'll never meddle again. This can be a problem if one of theways your characters get into plots is by meddling. Now, youand your players may decide that an experience is interestingor entertaining enough for a character to go through that it'sworth removing the character from the game and bringing ina new one. But this is still something that you must consider,and it may well be something you should cleat with theplayer first. After all, you're in this to have fun — and so areyour players.

A Few CharactersThe types of characters that may appear in a Sorcerer

chronicle, as players' characters or as Storyteller characters,are many and varied. As with other games, almost anycharacter concept may be made to work with a little effort.

Before the first session of your chronicle, you should sitdown with your players. If they haven't already found a wayto link their characters together and if you haven't done it for

Chapter Six: Storytelling 113

them (by specifying, for example, that they must all bemembers of the same cabal), then you need to make sure thatthe characters will work together. It's frustrating when thecharacters discover partway into the chronicle that theyreally have no reason to be hanging out together.

To a certain extent, you can solve this by Storytellerfiat. Point out that it's a game and that you're all here to havefun. You're not asking them to do things their characterswouldn't do, but you are asking them to slant their actions.This simply means that when they have a choice betweenactions (or non-actions), where one action allows them toinvolve the others and another doesn't, and neither actionparticularly violates their character concepts, they take theone that will involve the group. For example, if they have achoice between taking the others with them to meet withsomeone and going off alone, if they have no strong reasonwhy they should go alone, then they take the others.

You shouldn't rely on this too heavily though, or even-tually, you will ask someone to do something his characterjust wouldn't do, and some players have a hard time with that(why come up with a character, after all, if you aren't goingto stick to it?). So, you need to talk to the players ahead oftime and make sure that their characters have reason to worktogether. Did someone's mentor tell him to show someoneelse around and treat him as one of the cabal? Was one cabalmember a good friend of yet another member in childhood,so that now they can renew that friendship? Does the plotitself force the party together, by insuring that they all needto be involved in order to solve it? Do multiple members ofthe cabal have common interests that will bring themtogether? Or perhaps personalities that will mesh well?

If you do this and you still run into problems, you cansolve some of them in-game. This is where themes come inhandy. If someone refuses to share information with theothers and always keeps it to himself, then play with a themein which the lack of information dissemination becomesclearly bad. In other words, teach him a lesson. Worst case,if that doesn't work, you may need to speak to the player. Ifyou had the talk ahead of time about how the characters needto work together, then the player can't claim that he didn'tknow it would be a problem.

This isn't to say that all conflict between players' char-acters is bad. Indeed, it can make for very interesting plotssometimes. But you need a cohesive enough group to be ableto run a game for them.

Here are some rough suggestions for Sorcerer charac-ters, enough for you to get a handle on, with notes about howthey might be played with to encourage cohesive play. Theymay be used as Storyteller characters or as the basis forplayers' characters. They are not meant to be whole-clothcharacters, ready to go from the box, but they will hopefullyprovide you with plenty of ideas. Some should be relativelyobvious; hopefully others will be more surprising. After all,sorcerers can be anything.

This sorcerer has a thirst for knowledge that cannot bestaked. She wasn't satisfied with hours of copying arcanesymbols under the tutelage of her mentor. Her mentor saidshe'd learn more later, that she needed patience, but she hadnone to spare. Whenever her mentor went out of town, she'dsneak into his library and read the really old books, the oneswith tattered leather covers and writing that looked suspi-ciously crusty and reddish-brown. When she supposedlywent on vacation with her family, she really took trips toarchaeological digs in arcane places or to secret librariesshe'd discovered the location of.

Most of her magic is low level, but she has one or twoPath ratings that would surprise her mentor if he knew ofthem. She keeps her studies secret from him, and he's enoughof an academic, with sight only for studies and collegiatediscourse, that it never occurs to him that she might havegone beyond his curriculum.

She's learned some shadier magic, probably involvingthe summoning and binding of spirits. After all, isn't that thequick way to get new knowledge — to find spirits to impartit to you ? Too bad it's also the quick way to get hurt or killed.Some day her quest for knowledge will destroy her or maybethose around her. She may summon something she can'tabjure, awaken and free something long bound and asleep orgo mad at the sheer influx of forbidden knowledge.

Obviously this character is not destined to be long-lived. She is best suited to a short chronicle or anend-of-the-world plot — something where the charactersare not expected to live long. She stands a good chance ofgetting her compatriots killed as well, which is anotherreason to only allow her where the death rate is not expectedto be low. As a Storyteller character, she would make afantastic plot device. She might set free an ancient enemythat the players' characters must put to test. She might workwith them for a time, only to betray them to gain someknowledge that she wants. She might use them to uncoversome old tomb or ancient library. She might also be theircompetition — they must get to the treasure first, before shetakes it and unleashes its horrors.

The Protector of the InnocentThis sorcerer feels an obligation to protect the innocent

and the helpless — normally, this means ordinary mortalswho have no magic with which to combat life's tragedies. Hedoes everything he can without actually revealing to peoplewhat he can do; secrecy is paramount in his line of work. Heuses his status as a non-supernatural to get close to people, tofind out what troubles them, what their problems are; he's agood listener after all. In particular, he likes to figure outwhen a person's troubles are actually the result of thesupernatural and put a stop to them. He finds the interfer-ence of the supernatural in the lives of mortals a terriblething and fights it all the way.

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The Seeker of Forbidden Knowledge

The innocence of those mortals deserves protecting asmuch as their lives, however, so he does his best to make surethey never realize what it is that haunts them. He uses hisstatus as a learned member of the community, perhaps ateacher or scientist, to debunk their fears of witches andghosts, white going behind the citizens backs to stop thosesame witches and ghosts.

This character can make for fantastic fun — he could bepulled into almost any plot as long as the safety or innocenceof a mortal was at stake. Under the influence of othercharacters, he might even be convinced to widen the scopeof his concerns. As a "learned member of the community,"he would have useful skills other than his magic, which isalways important to a well-rounded character. This kind ofcharacter is often a loner, however, so he would need to betied in well with the other characters — are they his cabal ?Do they all work as a team? He might work well with amember of the police who is aware of the supernatural orwith other academics that believe it is their duty to do morethan watch and learn. He might also work well with a groupof his students, whom he instructs in both magic and the artof caring about their fellow man.

He wouldn't make nearly as good a Storyteller charac-ter, unless he was only around for a short time. You probablydon't want your group to have competition for solving theirproblems, at least not often. If you made him a mortal insteadof a sorcerer, however, he might find problems for the playersto solve. Or you might turn him into a bit of a madman, whobelieves he is helping people but, actually, causes moreproblems than he solves.

The Self-Made SorcererThis sorcerer never had a cabal or mentor to explain

things to her. She learned everything the old-fashioned way— through intuition, study and hard work. Maybe she got

some of her sources from unlikely or even misleading places,such as New Age bookshops and the local public library, butsomehow, she's distilled some real knowledge out of it all.Her keen intuition allows her to discern the thread of truthbehind the hyperbole and to make it work for her. Her ritualsare homemade, with symbols taken from pamphlets on homewitchcraft and phrases cobbled together out of Latin-to-English dictionaries (the grammar is atrocious). But it works.She always knew there was something out there, that magichad to be real, and eventually, she proved herself right.

Again, this is another character who is traditionally aloner, but it's very easy to work her into a group. Give herwhat she's always wanted — the chance to learn "real"magic, from people who won't laugh at her. Perhaps the restof the group is a cabal, and they just recruited her pre-game.Her style may clash with theirs for a while, but she's eager tolearn and hard working, and eventually, she'll fit in. Shecertainly never fit in anywhere else, so she's probably a bitstarved for approval and affection, and hopefully, she'll findboth with the cabal.

As a Storyteller character, she could be almost any-thing: a possible recruit for either side or a student for one ofthe players' sorcerers to pick up and then, perhaps, lose whena powerful enemy kills her. She might follow the cabal andblackmail them into teaching her. She could, in her despera-tion to learn, turn to dark magics. Or in her studies, she mighthave learned exactly what the cabal needs to know in orderto solve their plot, and they need to convince her to help.

The Helpful WaiterThis sorcerer knows a few little charms designed to help

people our. He might cure someone's illness or fashion a lovecharm for some nice lonely soul. He's never sought to use hispower for personal gain but only to help others in little ways.He's a waiter at a cheap local restaurant where the lost andthe lonely always seem to hang out; he's good enough to geta job somewhere better, but there wouldn't be as manypeople to help there. Here, he can help in all sorts of littleways. Sometimes, he slips herbal mixtures into people's food— the food here is bad enough that the herbs probablyimprove the taste.

The trick for this character would be to get him to takeon a wider worldview. He would need some ties to the group,so he'd have reason to listen when they tried to convince himto do something greater with his life. Perhaps they canconvince him that he could do even more good with theirhelp. Certainly, he has the basic wish to help people, whichcan get him into all sorts of plots. Maybe one of his regularcustomers has been killed by something, and the othercharacters want his help to investigate the murder. She wasa sweet woman who wouldn't have hurt a fly, and he feels aneed to find out who would have done such a thing to her.

He would also make an interesting Storyteller character,especially if the characters have a tendency to sit around andchat in restaurants. They might suddenly find little good thingshappening for them and, eventually, discover that it's the workof the lowly waiter who's always so happy to take their orders. Hecould be a low-level helper for the characters, always ready tomake a healing potion in their service but unwilling to leave hisbeloved customers in order to do more.

She works the tourist stops, showing people the sites fora fee. Sometimes she runs tours at local universities. Duringthe summer, she's been known to drive a trolley around thestreets. She watches people and uses her post as a tour guideas an excuse to go to all sorts of places. She covers up heragenda by being brash and loud, as obnoxious as the touristsshe guides. Thus, few ever suspect that she's anything otherthan the pest she appears to be.

In fact, she is a sorcerer. She uses her job to go into placesand spy, to gather information on people and places. Sheferrets out suspicious activities and passes them on to herfriends, who do something about it. Because she never

Chapter Six: Storytelling 115

The Tour Guide

actually shows up at the confrontation, sabotage or shootout, she is never associated with these events.

If the tour guide is a player's character, she might passher information on to other sorcerers — namely the rest ofthe group. She might get involved in the action after all, butin disguise or with her shape changed, so that no one willsuspect her. As a Storyteller character, she might work forthe cabal or for their opponents in one plot or another. Orshe might work for a group of hunters, who could graduallyintroduce the cabal to some of the other supernaturals in theWorld of Darkness. She might even be a mortal, with nosorcerous abilities whatsoever,

The Chemistry StudentThis character loved chemistry so much that he con-

vinced one of his professors to hire him for a research project,and eventually, he became an accepted part of her researchgroup. Because of this, he received access to her labs andequipment. He came in and played with things in his off timeand became quite adept at creating whatever drugs hewanted to. He started out making recreational drugs — hefound it got him invitations to all of the best campus parties,especially the private ones — but eventually, he moved on.Working from a textbook he found in his ptofessor's desk(he'd never heard of the author before, but he was sure shewouldn't have the book if it weren't good), he put togethera powder that put him out for a night and a day with visions.He thought it was just a powerful hallucinogen until some ofthe things he'd seen in the vision came true.

Then the professor confronted him about his use of thebook. He thought he'd put it back exactly the way it hadbeen, but she knew anyway. He thought she was going to firehim, but instead, she initiated him into her little cabal.Suddenly, some of the odd comments he'd heard around thelab made a lot more sense. It turned out that the researchgroup was into a lot more than simple chemistry •— theyworked with magical alchemy.

The entire collegiate research group might make for aninteresting group of characters, but you'd need to find waysto drag them out of die laboratory. Alternatively, the stu-dent himself could be made a character. Perhaps the professorasked him to help the group because one of them asked herfor a hand. Or she might have noticed that he had an affinityfor some other sort of magic and decided that he neededsomeone else to teach him the things that she couldn't.

As a Storyteller character, the student would be quiteversatile — the possibilities are almost endless. What if histeacher is in search of some dangerous (or at least abusable)elixir — an anti-aging drug, a drug to put people under herpower or some other such thing? Her student might eventu-ally feel it necessary to betray her in order to protect people,or he might be used against her even if he won't betray her.Alternatively, he could stand steadfastly by his teacher,

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forcing the cabal to go through an innocent student in orderto stop the professor.

The BartenderThe character tends bar in a good part of town, one

where yuppies come to look cool. She almost got fired oncefor telling a patron not to use his cell phone in the bar. Shehates her customers, but she learned a long time ago to keepher mouth shut and smile. She's had to endure all sorts ofsexual advances from people who thought that their moneyand their status would make her swoon. Here she learned tolook down on the wealthy and the successful. She sees theirlives as empty and meaningless.

She uses her psychic abilities to help some of the peopleher customers have hurt. She listens closely for stories oflayoffs and bad business deals. She uses her charm and herpretty face to get the beautiful people to tell her ail abouttheir latest triumphs, most of which involve hurting otherpeople. When helping the yuppies' victims means hurtingthe bastards, she's even happier about it. She has some skill

at mind-reading, which helps her to divine which businessdeals will do the most damage and to find those who mostneed her help.

She's basically a nice person, but she's seen too much ofthe bad side of the idle rich. She doesn't even see them ashuman any mote. As a player's character, she might use thebat to find problems and plots for the characters to solve. Shecan certainly use it to get close to people the cabal needs totalk to. She might drug people's drinks when necessary,although that's a dangerous path to take. Of course, a nightjob for a character could stand in the way of a number ofplots. Perhaps she takes care of the lunchtime and just post-work crowd, giving her plenty of time to work with the cabal.

As a Storyteller character, she could help the charactersto get information they need, only to get killed by a patronwho figures out what she's up to. Her mind-reading abilitiescould allow her to warn the cabal of someone who intends toharm them. She could accidentally learn something throughher mind-reading abilities that someone would kill her forand might require the protection of the cabal.

Sorcerers in the World of DarknessAlthough sorcerers often do not know muchabout the mysterious and dangerous thingsgoing on around them, neither do they live ina vacuum. While humans are probably morelikely than other creatures to become sorcer-ers, simply because they do not have otherpowers to fall back on, they are not the onlysorcerers out there. Neither ate they the onlyones with psychic powers. And while they will

only rarely get a good look at the things they share the Worldof Darkness with, it does sometimes happen. Some sorcererseven work hand-in-hand with other supernaturals.

This section will give you some ideas and guidelines fordealing with the many ways in which sorcerers and psychics mayinteract with the World of Darkness. You might wish to allowvampires, werewolves or other creatures to use sorcery as well.You might wish to use such creatures as helpers, antagonists orplot twists in your Sorcerer chronicle. Or you might allowsorcerers to fight side-by-side with mages or changelings.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all of theseplans. Hopefully, the information that follows will help youto choose your path and to make that path work for you.

What are the Stakes?What are the stakes in a Sorcerer chronicle? Sorcerers

are not as powerful as the other supernatural creatures thatsurround them. You cannot expect to send them directly upagainst vampires, werewolves, mages, etc, and have themsurvive for very long. To this end, here are a few suggestions.

Combat should not be a commonplace occurrence —especially combat with supernaturals. Don't send your sor-cerers up against a whole sept of werewolves if you want tokeep the cabal around for any length of time. If there iscombat, it should usually be against normal humans oralmost-humans. The cabal might occasionally run directlyup against the heavy-duty supernatural, but this should belimited to brief moments of terror and confusion.

Instead, a cabal of sorcerers needs other ways to solve itsproblems, and death should not be the only consequence ofa failed mission. Sorcery is obviously one resource, but youcan't solve every problem with a well-placed ritual. Besides,it would get boring. Politics are useful, as are other types ofrelationships and manipulation. Research is always fun, aswell as investigation of mysteries and puzzles. Sorcerers,more so than other supernaturals, need to have more in theway of abilities other than just their sorcery. You never knowwhat will prove useful in solving a plot. Try to play to thecharacters' (and players') strengths. And if you're accus-tomed to playing World of Darkness games, just rememberthat sorcerers are squishier than the things you're used toStorytelling about.

There's another reason to be careful in your use of thesupernatural around sorcerers. One of the major themes ofSorcerer is the mystery and wonder of the supernaturalworld. If your sorcerers learn to categorize and recognize onsight all the types of vampires, werewolves and mages, thenthese creatures lose their wonder,

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Keep it Low-Key

Bring the big guns in only rarely, instead, let thesupernatural manipulate things behind the scenes, givingonly hints to the cabal about what's really going on aroundthem. Tease the cabal with glimpses of the supernaturalrather than putting it right out in front of them. You mightbring a vampire or a mage in once in a long while for theclimax of a plot, or you might bring in characters that seemalmost normal but are secretly werewolves or changelings,but don't do it all the time. You might find it necessary totrim your usual notions of a city's supernatural population —too many vampires and it becomes difficult to justify why thecabal never notices them,

If your players are familiar with the workings of theWorld of Darkness, then turn it all upside-down. If you wantto do this in small ways then you might alter the way a fewpowers work here and there. It will confuse people and helpto cut down on instances of "oh, that's a Toreador," when thecharacters shouldn't even recognize a vampire in the firstplace. If you're serious about confusing the cabal and youhave a little time, you might turn everything upside down.Vampires never sleep, even if they can't go out in sunlight.There are only four clans, and there's a third faction alongwith the Sabbat and Camarilla, The clan names are unfamil-iar, and the Disciplines they wield don't match any knownconfiguration. Or just shuck the entire system of Disciplinesand clans out the window — who says that vampires in yourSorcerer game have to have any but the most passingresemblance to vampires in some other game? The sorcerersare the center of attention here!

You can do similar things with werewolves, perhapschanging a few details of the tribe structure. Or you could goso far as to add extra forms they can take or to declare that,when in lupus, a wolf has trouble remembering anything ofits human life and, thus, may not recognize foes or allies.Perhaps werewolves really do only change during the fullmoon, or maybe the new moon, just to confuse things.

You don't have to color within the lines. If you want tobring the mystery back into the World of Darkness forplayers who've been involved in it for too long, then changethe very world itself.

Sorcery Vs....You'll need to take into account how sorcery and psy-

chic abilities will affect supernaturals. For instance, arealchemical poisons, tranquil tiers and anesthetics effectiveagainst vampires? After alt, alchemical substances don'twork the way medications do; they work mystically (espe-cially for sorcerers with particularly mystical paradigms).Therefore, they might work against someone whose body nolonger functions in the normal way. But do you want a LevelOne Alchemy preparation to be able to sedate a vampire?This might be too powerful. You could allow the vampiresome sort of resisted roll against the number of successes thesorcerer achieved on the effect. Perhaps a Willpower roll at

a difficulty of three plus the sorcerer's Path or ability ratingwould do. You would then determine the success of the effectby counting the number of net successes the sorcerer achieved.Instead of a resisted roll, you might simply increase thesorcerer's difficulty level.

You might choose a different roll, if that seems moreappropriate to you. For example, consider the following.How do psychic powers and Auspex (the vampiric Disci-pline that involves use of "psychic" abilities) interact? Cana psychic block a vampire's attempt to establish telepathiccontact? Instead of using Willpower, you might allow avampire with the Auspex Telepathy Discipline to attempt toblock a human telepath directly, or vice versa. The twocharacters could make contested rolls — the human psychicuses his Telepathy roll, and the vampire uses the roll forAuspex Telepathy: Perception + Empathy. Again, the char-acter attempting to perform the original action would succeedor fail based on his net successes.

An alchemical potion of weakness might "counteract"Potence-born Strength. A preparation that strengthens themind or the will might help to counteract Dominate. Apreparation to grant "clear sight" might be used againstObfuscate. Again, these are things you should decide uponahead of time. Just how effective is a sorcerer's work againsta vampire's abilities? In other words, do you want thesupernaturals in your game to be rare, powerful, nigh-un-stoppable creatures that the cabal has to out-think, or areyou planning on more direct confrontations? If the latter,you'll want to give your sorcerers an edge.

You might decide that a sorcerer's Paths aren't effectivewhen used directly against supernaturals until the sorcererreaches Level Two, or even Level Three, in the Path hewishes to use. You could instead increase the difficulty of anyroll involving effects upon supernatural beings. Or youmight go effect by effect, deciding on an individual basiswhat sounds reasonable and right. The Path of Shadowsmight allow minor insight into the workings ofObtenebration. Fascination might allow insight into Pres-ence. (As always, study and research are de rigueur.)

But vampires aren't the only supernaturals sorcerersstand a chance of encountering. What about the truly dead?You might decide that only the spiritual may counteractspirits, and thus, in order for a sorcerer to protect againstwraiths, she must have some understanding of Ephemera. Itis unlikely that abilities such as Telepathy would work on thedead, but you might allow it anyway. The Path of Fortunemight or might not work on wraiths. Again, you mightrequire the sorcerer to have a certain rating in the Path, oryou might increase the difficulty of the roll. You might rulethat certain preparations or a mystical Talisman are neces-sary before sorcery that wasn't designed to operate on wraithsmay do so.

How do Paths and psychic abilities interact with the Giftsand Rites of werewolves? Garou Rites and Gifts are highly

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individualized; they don't come in convenient categories theway vampiric Disciplines do. This wilt require a higher level ofjudgment on the fly. You can still make some decisions ahead oftime, however. First, you might say that the only protectionsorcerers have against Gifts and Rites are Path effects thatobviously and directly counter the effect of a Gift or Rite. Forexample, there is a Level Two Gift called Halt the Coward'sFlight that slows the werewolf's opponents as they flee. How-ever, the whole point of the Path of Conveyance is swiftmovement, so you might allow the sorcerer to use it to counterthe effect of the Gift. Again, though, this is just speculative —your werewolves might not use Gifts at all; see if your playersgather a new respect for them should the werewolves rum outto be berserk, slavering monsters hungering to rend the sorcererslimb from limb, all magic and spirituality be damned!

Or you might use a slightly more fluid way of looking atthings — by area of relevance rather than direct effect. Youmight allow a sorcerer to use the Path of Ephemera toattempt to interfere with a Gift or Rite that has to do withspirits. This is hardly a perfect solution; it requires muchmore judgment on the fly and makes sorcerers more powerfulthan they should be. You might, however, allow a sorcererwith a Path that is related to a Gift or Rite (again, there is theabove example of spirit-related magic) to spend time re-searching a ritual to counteract said Gift or Rite, Thesorcerer should have a fairly detailed knowledge of the Giftor Rite, or at least its effects, before she can research a wayto oppose it. You might temper

this ruling by requiring a great deal of research, making theresulting ritual very difficult, increasing the difficulty of theroll or only allowing this when the sorcerer has a high ratingin the relevant Path,

Mages, by nature, can do anything a sorcerer can do,provided they have the relevant Sphere levels. Some of themdon't even need all of the ritualistic trappings in order to doit. Again, specific effects may counter specific effects. If youwish, as stated before, you might allow sorcerers to researchways to counteract magical effects that they otherwise haveno protections against. Also again, this requires research,experience with the effect and/or a high Path rating or ahigher difficulty. It should certainly be more difficult for asorcerer to learn to countermagic than it is for a mage to.After all, Spheres are more flexible than Paths.

The Path of Conveyance and the Sphere of Correspon-dence might easily be used against one another. The Sphere ofTime could be used to ward against the Path of Fortune,Alchemy might be used to mimic, undo or counter Mattereffects. Alchemy, Shapechanging and Healing might counteror mimic Life effects. Entropy and Fortune might be used againstone another. As always, the sorcerer will have a harder time ofit than the mage will, but she certainly is not powerless.

Changelings — or kithain — are, by nature, tricky andelusive creatures. The effects that they work may be subtleand difficult to counter. Sorcery should easily affect thehuman shell that the changeling wears. But the changeling

Chapter Six: Storytelling 119

herself? That is another matter. An enchanted sorcerershould be able to work sorcery against changelings andchimerical creatures that she sees, just as the enchanted mayphysically interact with such things. Perhaps a sorcerer mustbe enchanted in order to affect the changeling herself. It'sentirely possible that the sorcery of an enchanted personmight take on something of a Life of its own, having effectsthe sorcerer did not expect. Kithain and the enchantedmight see visual effects accompanying sorcery, at the least.

Sorcery that clears the mind might work against Chica-nery; perhaps psychic abilities may be used to block theeffects as well. Healing may be used to repair the effects ofHolly Strike upon a person. Use common sense. As always,you might require a higher difficulty to affect changelingswith sorcery. Changelings are the embodiment of the unex-pected, however -- rules are antithetical to their verynature. So try to be spontaneous; try to surprise. You mighteven roll a die to see if the effect works on the changeling —even, it does, odd, it doesn't.

Sorcery AmongThe Supernatural

Almost anyone can study sorcery— in theory. After all,why not? Sorcery is generally a learned skill, and werewolves arejust as capable of study as humans are. Or at least, some of themmust be. What about vampires, who have centuries in which tostudy odd things? Surely some of them have picked up the artsof sorcery. And changelings, who reflect the dreams of man —many humans dream of mystical power, so why shouldn't thatbe reflected in the fair folk? And what about mages? Perhapssorcery doesn't seem strictly necessary for them, since Spheremagic should be able to duplicate any sorcerous effect. But it'sentirely possible that someone who doesn't know any Life magicsomehow picked up some Shapechanging from a sorcerer. Evensome ghosts might well be able to wield the arts of sorcery,although some ritual items might be difficult for them to obtainin their state.

What about psychic powers? It probably depends onhow you justify them. If they're odd mystical powers thatsome people just happen to have and others don't, then whyshouldn't supernatural have them? If a psychic is Embracedby a vampire, is there any good reason why that ability shoulddie? If he goes through Chrysalis and becomes a changeling,why should he lose his telepathy?

Actually, there are plenty of potential reasons if youdecide that giving supernaturals psychic abilities wouldmake them too powerful. Perhaps the shock of the change isenough to destroy the fragile ability. Maybe the physicalalterations that go with such a change render the psychicabilities useless. Death is probably the most damaging ofchanges with respect to psychic abilities — unless theseabilities are mystical in nature, then they probably died withthe brain.

But that's the point. Whether such creatures are capable ofsorcery or other unusual abilities is entirely up to you as theStoryteller. The question at hand is not whether it's reasonablefor supernaturals to be able to do sorcery or use psychic powers.It's whether that's what you want in your game.

The Measure of PowerFull supematurals — Changelings, werewolves, vam-

pires, mages and wraiths — are powerful. They have Arts,Gifts and Rites, Disciplines, Spheres and Arcanoi. As withmany other things, you should think carefully before allow-ing them even more power. You might decide to allow themto use sorcery and such things just like anyone else — afterall, points Spent on sorcery aren't spent on Disciplines orother powets, so hopefully, they'll balance. You might givethem penalties—perhaps sorcery has a higher cost in freebieand experience points. You could even justify this by sayingthat these creatures have other, more innate abilities toconcentrate on, so sorcery doesn't come naturally. Or youcould say that these creatures simply can't learn sorcery —perhaps it's an inherently mortal and human thing, bymystical fiat.

If you allow supernatural to use sorcery or to havepsychic ability, you'll need to think about how sorcery willinteract with a character's other abilities. Can a werewolf usethe Level One Gift Speed of Thought to double his landspeed and then add in a Conveyance effect to boost his speedeven more, or are these abilities entirely separate? May awraith use both the Fatalism Arcanos and the Path ofDivination together to get an even more powerful effectthan she could do with either one separately?

There are three basic ways of approaching it. One, Pathsare entirely separate from other supernatural abilities andmay not be used in conjunction with them. This does notinclude cases where the effects of magics would interact, asopposed to the magics themselves. For example, a sorcerer-mage uses a Conjuration effect (magic) to move a bombtoward an enemy and a Forces effect (magic) to set it off. Thisdoesn't involve the effect of one ability directly upon an-other; it is simply the use of two different abilities, one rightafter the other. However, the Speed of Thought Gift and theConveyance effect wouldn't allow the werewolf-sorcerer togo faster than he could go using either the Gift or the Pathalone, because they would need to interact directly.

Two, specific effects may act together to allow thesorcerer to do things he normally could not do by using eithereffect alone. This would allow the example above of theSpeed of Thought Gift and the Conveyance effect to work.

Three, effects may mix in even stranger ways; thesorcerer isn't limited to the obvious, direct interactions.Perhaps a sorcerer-mage could work a little Forces magicwhile making an alchemical preparation in order to obtainan explosive substance (or a substance that gives off ormagnifies heat) that he couldn't have made with his level of

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Alchemy alone. This is the most permissive of the ways ofhandling ability interaction and, as such, involves the mostquick-witted judgment and advance thought. Don't do itunless you feel very comfortable with your players and veryconfident of your ability to keep them in check and makesnap judgments.

decisions will make for a good time for all, rather thanfrustration and confusion.

Although the addition of sorcery might make mages,vampires and werewolves overly powerful, it could make theperfect finishing touch to a kinfolk, kinain, ghoul, acolyte,medium or other mortal character. Certainly, it could makesuch characters more likely to live through a chronicle inwhich other players are playing full vampires, werewolves,mages or changelings. This is perhaps where sorcery shinesbest — when it is in the hands of the less powerful denizensof the World of Darkness. It can go a long way towardleveling the playing field.

As always, make your dec is ions based on what is right foryour chronicle. But keep in mind the issues involved, so your

Crossover chronicles are tricky things. They can be veryrewarding when done well and very frustrating when donepoorly. It takes a great deal of advance thought and carefuljudgment to handle a crossover chronicle, especially whenmortal sorcerers are involved; it isn't recommended for thenew Storyteller.

First of all, sorcerers are usually much more easilydamaged than most other World of Darkness critters. Whatendangers a werewolf may destroy a sorcerer in seconds; whatterrifies a sorcerer is little more than a flea to a werewolf. Thismeans rhat group combars are almost entirely out. It's virtu-ally impossible to run a combat in which everyone is afraidfor his life and yet everyone has a reasonable chance to comeout of it alive.

Be sure to refer to the earlier section on adjusting thestakes in a Sorcerer chronicle. You'll need to bring inhurdles other than combat. Politics, investigation, puzzles,contests and personal plots are just some of the substitu-tions you might make. You might also initiate combatwhen the group has been split up. Or you might work oncombats in which it's possible for the "weaker" membersof the group to hang back out of the worst of the dangerbut still have an impact on things. Long range weaponsand offensive sorcery can be marvelous equalizers, but trynot to let the concept of combat-Sorcery get out of hand.If your sorcerers are all thinking about which Paths letthem kill things fastest, then they're missing a lot of themore amazing aspects of playing a sorcerer.

Involve everyone in each other's plots. This is one of thelargest problems in a crossover chronicle. Unless you're workingwith very high epic plots in which the group is dragged intosomething much larger than they are, you need to make surethey all have reasons to work with each other. Make sure theyhave need of each other's abilities. Give them background ties.If possible, make sure the characters care about one another.

You might address the issue of relative power mechani-cally. One way for sorcerers to be useful in a crossover chronicleis for them to have Skills, Talents, Knowledges and Back-grounds that are needed for the plot. Make sure that not all ofyour plots may be solved by the application of supernaturalability; take normal abilities into account. Then you could givesorcerers a few extra freebies to start with, perhaps on thecondition that they be used for non-supernatural resources. Iftheir lack of supernatural power turns out to be a problem in yourchronicle, fix it one (or both) of two ways: Adjust the ways inwhich your plots may be solved, or lower die cost of sorcery andNumina for sorcerers,

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Excuses, ExcusesWhat's that, you say? You're going to stack a little

sorcery on top of your already uber-twinked-out charac-ter? Well, sure, so long as your Storyteller says it's kosher.But for the completist Storyteller, there are plenty of waysout of the bag.

With vampires, werewolves, wraiths and change-lings, these characters just aren't human. They don't tapinto mystic energy the same way. They have their ownpower sources; Everything a vampire does is fueled withblood, for example. Thus, if they want to do sorcerous-likeeffects, they must learn versions that cater to their strengths.Vampires in their game have Thaumaturgy, after all.

As for mages.,, that's a bit tougher. We know thatOrder of Hermes mages often undergo an apprentice-ship studying sorcery; they don't just mystically "forget"it when they Awaken. So what gives? Well, you couldrule that, since the Awakening, the Avatar stirs to allof the mage's mystical ties. When the mage tugs onmythic threads (read: uses magic), the Avatar inter-venes and reshapes the Tapestry, What was oncesorcery is now an Effect of the Spheres,

Or maybe not. You could let your mages use sorcery.Why not? It's not inherently any more potent thanSphere magic. Sometimes it's even more useful. Andbesides, as pointed out before, a mage spend ing points on.sorcery isn't spending points on Spheres and Arete. It's astatic path, one that doesn't lead to enlightenment.

So go wild. Put in the stuff you want to use toflavor your chronicle.

Halfway There

Crossover Chronicles

You might also insist that any sorcerers in your crossoverchronicle be quasi-supernatural. This should give them an extraedge, as well as ties among more powerful supernaturals. It alsostarts them out with more knowledge about some aspect of theWorld of Darkness, which may help them to hold their own.

Crossover chronicles can be wonderful, but you do need totake the relative power-level of the characters into accountwhen you plan things. It's more work than you may be used to,but it may also be well worth it.

Game Balance and the Limitations of NuminaIn which you will be given ways to expand orlimit sorcery, suggestions for the creation ofnew Paths, an example of the creation of a newPath between player and Storyteller and sug-gestions for keeping players from abusing thecreation of Paths.

So you've read the chapters on how sorcery works, andmaybe you have concerns. You think the characters will betoo powerful for the plots you have planned. Or maybe youwanted to run a high-epic adventure and worry that thecharacters won't be powerful enough. Luckily, Sorcerer iseasy to customize for the power level you desire. Here youwill find a few suggestions for changes you might make, oneway or the other.

In the "default" setting, a sorcerer who tries to causeanything to happen that results in disbelief sees his spellfizzle. This keeps the sorcerer human — he may be able tosway reality to his side, but he can't make it do cartwheels theway Awakened mages can. Of course, he also doesn't sufferthe Paradox that mages suffer.

Toning Down the Power LevelFirst, let's assume that you want your players' characters

to be less powerful than the average Sorcerer character. Youmight require a ritual for every single effect. Keep in mindthat this means sorcerers aren't going to be knocking offspells during combat or other such tense situations. Eitherthe characters must be built to handle these without sorcery,or you'll have to resist the urge to send anything too danger-ous directly after them.

You could introduce a price tag for use of sorcery orpsychic powers. Perhaps psychic powers result indebilitating

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The Limitations ofNumina

headaches, especially for anything too strenuous, sorcerymight cost extra Willpower or require both Willpower andsomething else in order to cast — magical energy, perhaps,Maybe the casting of sorcery tires the sorcerer out for thenext few hours. It could also harm the sorcerer in some way,

Or perhaps sorcery causes similar, uncontrollable eventsto happen nearby — a sort of synchronicity. As an example,a sorcerer might start a small fire, and somewhere nearbyanother fire might start — in someone's home. Or instead,a nearby furnace, stove or fireplace would be extinguished.Summoning a spirit of one kind might cause other spirits —either similar ones or ones in opposition to the spirit called— to be drawn to the same area. Enchanting an object mightcause other objects within a mile or two to temporarily takeon similar or opposing effects. If a sorcerer enchants a jacketto stop bullets, then perhaps a police officer's bulletproofvest develops a temporary flaw. The use of sorcery wouldhave echoes and unpredictable consequences.

Sorcery might also leave a distinctive "smell" (or aura oranything else you wish — a residue of some kind) upon thesorcerer for a day or three. Thus, other supernaturals may realizethat the sorcerer is more than just an ordinary mortal or has atleast in some way been involved with the supernatural recently.It may attract the attention of things the sorcerer doesn't wantto deal with —mages, vampires or the Inquisition. Or perhapsthe use of sorcery is very noticeable and irritating to any animalsnearby, who bark repeatedly, scratch or bite people or act evenmore strangely (such as a puppy that runs around and aroundin its bed without stopping).

Sorcerers and psychics might be preternaturally sensi-tive to odd things. Perhaps telepaths get dizzy for a day beforean earthquake. One sorcerer's workings might vary in pre-dictability with the weather — when it's warm and sunny,his effects are right on track; the closer the weather is tostorm weather, the stranger the results (or vice versa). If asorcerer summons a spirit in a place where someone wasmurdered, the spirit he summons may be darker than the onehe sought.

There are a number of traditional costs from movies andliterature for the use of psychic powers, A telepath mightpick up thoughts he didn't intend to listen in on. This canresult in all sorts of unfortunate situations. Someone mightnotice and go after the telepath, believing that he knowssomething he shouldn't. The telepath might overhear some-thing out of context and jump to a conclusion chat isincorrect. A telekinetic might try to lift an object, only tohave other objects nearby be affected by his power (theymight move as well or crumple or heat up or be attracted orrepelled by the objects he actually intended to afreet).Someone who opens herself up to impressions from objects(Psychometry) might pick up pieces of impressions fromother things nearby (the chair that she sits on, the necklacethat she wears) that cloud the issue.

The default setting for sorcerous powers is that disbeliefcauses magic to fizzle. If a character attempts to throw energybolts in a mall during shopping hours, it just won't work. Youmight, however, be even more restrictive. Perhaps throwingenergy bolts even in wild areas with no one around for mileswon't work. This is one of those things you should thinkcarefully about before implementing—does this castrate toomany of the sorcerous Paths? Your players won't be happy ifthey base their characters' abilities on what they read of thePaths, only to find out that half of those abilities won't work.

Mechanically, you might attach a higher experience orfreebie point cost to sorcerous abilities and psychic powers. Oryou could cut the number of starting freebie points, or hand outexperience points at a slower rate. You could make new ritualsvery difficult to learn, requiring experienced teachers, largeamounts of research time, a boon from a powerful spirit or othersupernatural or even a quest. This may even be a source of plots,sending your characters to archaeological digs, spiritual planesor ancient and forgotten libraries.

You might restrict what a sorcerer can do with each levelof each Path she has. For example, the first level of Shapeshiftinggives a character the ability to change one minor physicalfeature of her choice — eye color, skin color, hair length, etc.You might instead say that it gives the sorcerer the ability tochange only one physical feature, which must be chosen inadvance— say, just eye color. The sorcerer would need to learnseveral features, spending an extra experience point or two foreach beyond the first, before she could generalize this to thenormal Level One effect. Beware, however, for this road mayresult in an inordinate amount of gameplay being spent on thelearning and acquisition of sorcery, which could get tiresomeafter a while. You could, if you want to, restrict sorcerous abilityat first but allow the characters to become more powerful later;only follow this route for the Level One abilities of each Path.

You might make the scope of the Paths narrower.Instead of "the Path of Shapeshifting," you might have "thePath of Feline Form." At Level One, changing small featureswould only work if they were changed in catlike ways —slitted eyes, for example, of one of the colors found in cats(primarily yellow, but sometimes blue, green, etc.). (See alsothe Telepathy psychic phenomenon, on p, 108, for anexample of making Paths narrower.)

If you decide to make sorcery less powerful, you shouldprobably choose only one or two of the methods delineatedabove. Otherwise, sorcery may become entirely unwieldy.

Making Sorcery More PowerfulThen there are ways to make sorcerers more powerful

instead of less. You might allow more effects to be castquickly, without the use of rituals. You might allow rituals tobe cast in advance and then triggered at the correct time.

Perhaps sorcerers push the envelope of reality in your game;they might be able to slip small impossibilities under reality's nose.

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You'll need to decide ahead of time just how far they can push it,however; this line can be difficult to judge and even more difficultto explain adequately to players so that they understand what theycan and cannot do. Perhaps nature-related spells work in "natural"areas, even if they are vulgar. Or perhaps death- and destruction-related spells work in places where people live without hope.Device-related sorcery might have the edge in a physics lab or rightafter a major science-fiction movie arrives in theaters. In otherwords, reality might be a little more flexible as long as the sorcerer'smagic is matched up with his surroundings and the imaginations ofthe people around him. Thus, the imaginations of individuals, or atleast small groups of people, has an effect on reality, rather than theusual default in which reality listens only to the masses as a whole.

Alternatively, you could allow witnessed violations inplaces where they don't match the setting, provided thesorcerer goes through certain preparations or wields acertainTalisman. Be very careful before you allow this — it is anextremely powerful thing. You should probably set things upsuch that you can remove the means to violate reality fromthe game should it ever prove too powerful.

You might expand the scope of the Paths. For instance,Conjuration might allow some small chance of achievingConveyance as well. The problem with this route is thatPaths come to resemble Spheres, and then the uniqueness ofsorcery is lost. Perhaps the best way to implement this mightbe something like the following: A sorcerer with knowledgeof Conjuration might be able to attempt feats of Conveyanceat a Path level of three less than his Path level in Conjura-tion, at a higher-than-normal difficulty. The same mightwork between other seemingly related Paths.

You might start with mechanics again. You could reducethe cost of Paths in either experience or freebie points. Youcould award a higher starting pool of freebie points or a greaternumber of experience points per session. You could alter thePath effects themselves so that greater abilities rest at lowerlevels, (Perhaps Levels One and Two would become Level One;Level Three would become Level Two, and so on.)

Rituals might be easier to learn or to develop on one's own.Perhaps rituals must simply be intuited, rather than researched,and thus, any ritual that "feels" right stands a chance of working.This sort of play requires a Storyteller who knows her playerswell and players who can be trusted. Otherwise, it may be tooeasily abused, even unintentionally.

At any rate, whether you want your sorcerers to be moreor less powerful, you would do well to fine-tune the numberof experience points you hand out as you go along, ratherthan following someone else's guidelines. Anything fromone to five points a session can be made to work, dependingon your style of play. If characters outstrip your plots in powerlevels, cut the number of points you hand out. If theyadvance too slowly, increase it. You can do the same with allof the above suggestions.

While you don't want to change the rules all the time —it tends to confuse players — you can certainly fine tune

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things as you go along. If you're into high-epic plots youcould even work the changing effects into the story line.Something might happen in game to make reality more orless malleable. Or a supernatural catastrophe might leaveechoes that affect how sorcery works. A justification can becreated for almost anything, and a change that occurs as partof a plot is likely to be quite memorable. Don't be afraid tochange things if you think it would make the game more funfor you and your players.

The creation of a new Path is not a small matter. Sorcerershave a tendency to follow well-documented lines of magic —hence the name "Paths" — and they do not often strike outentirely on their own. The creation of a new Path is somethingordinarily done by very experienced sorcerers, after decades ofresearch (probably finishing up on even more research by theircabal). Said research is usually followed up with even more yearsof experimentation before any real "field work" is permitted.However, you may occasionally wish to allow your players tocreate new Paths, or you may wish to do so yourself. After all, it'sjust possible that there are interesting magical possibilities notset forth in this book, and that should hardly keep you fromplaying with them.

Ordinarily, you should consider the following guide-lines when allowing the creation of a new Path;

• The sorcerer must have one Path rating of at leastfive before he may design new Paths.

• The initial dot in the newly created path costs 10experience points; each level thereafter costs (new level xfive).

• The sorcerer must do a great deal of research,experimentation and practice in order to create a new Path.It does not just appear full-fledged in his head. The creationof a Path may well take years of game time before consistentresults may be achieved.

• All Path elements must, obviously, be tied to a certaintheme. This is why there is "the Path of Shapeshifting" insteadof "the Path of Doing Sorcerous Things." First, the sorcerer mustrestrict her researches to a common area before she can evenbegin to sift through the information out there and make senseof it. Again, sorcerers have Paths, mages have Spheres— allowa Path to become too broad and the distinction betweenAwakened magic and linear magic is lost.

• Sorcery is subtle and slow. No new Path will allow asorcerer to blow up buildings with a wink and a nod or turnpeople into toxic sludge by spraying black paint in their faces.

Obviously, all of this is subject to what you believe isbest. You may, as in the example below, allow someone tostart out with a new Path. You could even allow a characterto develop a Path intuitively rather than by research — atleast at first. The only two rules that you should think very

The Creation OfA New Path

carefully before breaking— in fact, that you really shouldn'tbreak unless you're running a Monty Haul game — are thelast two. The narrow scope and purview of a Path are whatmakes it a Path and not a Sphere. The subtlety of a Path iswhat makes it sorcery and not Awakened magic. If you takethose away, you might as well play regular Mage and toss outthe sorcery altogether.

If you do not have much experience as a Storyteller orwith Sorcerer or with your players, do not start out bybreaking the rules. Get a feel for the game and what you'll beunbalancing (or not) before you change things. In particu-lar, get a feel for your players before you let them do thingsfor which you may not know all of the ramifications. If youfeel comfortable giving them free rein, that's wonderful. Ifyou have any reservations, however, consider things care-fully before allowing your players to create new Paths. If youhave reservations, don't break the above set of rules.

The Argument at Hand"It's called the Path of Manifest Nature.""The what?" Andrew leaned over the living room table

and stared at the scribbled notes.Steven pointed at the pad of paper. "The Path of—""I heard you. What does it mean?""Joshua — my character — uses it to bring people's

nature to the surface and affect them physically. It's coloredby his perceptions of them, though. So he can use it to punishsomeone who screws him over and reward someone who doessomething nice for him."

"Let me guess. He doesn't have enough physical dots toget back at them that way, and he isn't particularly powerfulin a temporal sense, so...."

"Right!" Steven grinned."Why doesn't he just use Hellfire?" Andrew looked skeptical."It doesn't let him reward nice people.""Fortune?""It doesn't suit his paradigm. He doesn't see it as some-

thing he does to them — it comes from within,""Herbalism? You can do some nice physical things to

people with that.""He thinks Herbalism is for housewives and midwives.""What about dealing with spirits?""He doesn't think they exist."Andrew sighed. "Okay, okay. I'll let you make the Path

of Manifest Nature. There's a lot of nitty-gritty detail to workout, though. For instance, what does each level do?"

Steven's face brightened. "I have it all drawn out! See, atlower levels it just gives little hints; someone who's basicallynice might find that their asthma gets a little better for a shorttime. Someone who's an asshole gets hives or something."

"Hives? At lower levels? You've never had hives, have you?""Well, no, but—"

"We'll get back to that when we detail the levels. So, athigher levels it does... what?"

"Uh, well, it lasts longer, for one.""I kind of guessed.""And of course there are bigger effects. Things that

might even affect Attributes or things that take seriousmedication or even surgery,"

Andrew nodded, "Okay. I can live with that. This isn'tgoing to be an instant Smite Thy Enemy and Make ThyTeammates Spiffy Path, you know. Those are bad. Thoseunbalance games in big ways."

"Oh, I know! Honestly, it's more of a character thingthan something that's supposed to have a huge effect on plotsor anything."

Andrew actually smiled. "Okay, now we're getting some-where. Character things, I like. They're less likely to beabused, too. And since it's you, I know you actually mean itwhen you say 'it's more of a character thing'; I wouldn't letEvan do this for the life of me. I still want to see the level-by-level breakdown, though. Convince me."

Steven flipped to the next page of the pad. "Well,there's Level One. It's for things that last no more than threeor four days, at most. Sometimes, they last onty one or two,It could be an easement of allergy symptoms, like sneezing orrunny nose, for good people. Someone nasty might get a rashon their arm or something. Minor annoyances."

"Got it. That sounds reasonable. Two?""Two lasts no more than two weeks. See? It's easy to

remember. Two, two weeks.""I got it, I got it.""At two, mild acne might give way to perfectly smooth

skin. Hands get slight tendonitis pains. And, uh, there's hives...""You really haven't had hives, have you? Anything

systemic that requires prescription medication and has thepotential to affect Attributes does not go at Level Two!"

"Attributes? How?""You ever seen someone with hives all over their face

and hands?""Oh. No. But prescription medication? I mean, it just

itches, right?""Itches. Burns. I'd say it makes your skin sting, but that makes

it sound nice. And that's just the start. Antihistamines, corticoster-oid creams, maybe adrenaline shots if your throat starts to close offand you're lucky enough to be close to a hospital."

Steven just stared at Andrew,Andrew continued, "So, Level Three,""Yeah, three. Duration would be no more than one

month. Arthritispain eases. And, uh, how about mild hives?No, listen. I was thinking that at this level you get stuff thatrequires prescription medication, but doesn't affect At-tributes. So you could give someone mild hives that aren't onthe face and hands."

Chapter Six: Storytelling 125

"Oh, okay. Fine. You can have your hives. What is itwith you and giving people hives anyway? Never mind, Idon't want to know. Level four?"

"Duration no more than six months. Uh, that isn't toolong, is it?"

Andrew looked thoughtful, "I think I see the curveyou're taking, so no, it isn't. Go on."

"Here come things that potentially affect Attributes.So, systemic hives that show up on the face and hands gohere. Full-blown tendonitis in both arms, because that cutsStrength and Dexterity. On the good side, intensive clumsi-ness might give way to grace; birth marks on the face couldfade away."

"I'll think about the tendonitis; I might move that toLevel Five. And if the hives are going to close off someone'sthroat and kill them, then it gets moved up to six. The restis fine. Next?"

"Level Five has a duration of no more than one year. Abeautiful face might get acne-scarred. Near-sightedness be-comes 20/20 vision. The sorts of things you might affect bysurgery, perhaps."

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for a little supernaturalLASIK. Less chance of side effects. Go on: six?"

"Six is for permanent effects, sometimes affecting termi-nal conditions. A morbidly obese man finds his weightslowly dropping to doctor-prescribed perfection. Someonegets cancer of the mouth or skin or finds his leukemiamysteriously cured. Really cool 'miracles' like that."

"Hmm. Permanent, eh?"

"Uh, five years then?"Andrew sighed. "No, permanent's reasonable at Level

Six. After all, who's to say Joshua will live long enough toreach Level Six?" He snickered.

Steven paled. "We're doomed! Again! And the gamehasn't even started yet!"

"You're always doomed. But right now we need to talkabout method."

"I thought about that too!""Good. Now tell me your thoughts."

"Well, it seems like he's just facilitating a reaction withinsomeone else. So I was thinking Empathy would be involved."

Andrew nodded approvingly. "I'd buy that. I'd probablypair it with Charisma— No, wait. That makes sense forpeople you're helping, but not in the case of people you'reharming. So Charisma + Empathy for people you like, andManipulation + Empathy for people you hate. When you doit to get revenge for something you'll have to spend Will-power, because presumably the reaction isn't happeningwith the cooperation of any part of the person. Umm, thatisn't a magical explanation for why, just something that sortof makes sense to me — it should be harder to do bad thingsto someone than to do good things."

"I can live with that. So I was thinking that Joshua does itby going home and doing a tarot spread for the person. Not somedinky, five-minute, ten-card thing, but this all-out, several-hour, 35-card thing I found in some book. It involves incense,meditation, low lighting, cleansing the ritual space, you know— getting into the mood, the right frame of mind. If anythinghappens to disrupt the mood he has to do it all over."

"Ooh, I like that. It has style, and it's easy to screw up."Steven's eyes widened, but Andrew continued without

even noticing. "So is the spread just a vehicle?""Pretty much. See, I gave him a little Divination, so I

think he sort of pairs the Paths, It helps him gain insight intowhat the person is like when he sees where the right cardsfall. Then he chooses the cards that fall for the future, cardshe thinks reflect that person's nature and how it wouldmanifest physically."

Andrew frowned. "Hmm. That's more specific anddetailed than the effects seem to suggest. How about he doesthe spread more as a meditation and ritual in and of itself? Ifhe has enough Divination, he might also be able to figure outwhat it means about the person's life, but mostly, it's just afocus for directing the effect at the person,"

Steven sat back for a moment. "Okay, I think that'sclose enough to what I wanted. I can see that."

"I don't see him as choosing what effect happens to theperson. I see him sort of as a catalyst for the manifestation ofa person's nature, more like what you described earlier."

"I guess that's a bit less powerful than what I wanted.""Well, I think it would be too powerful for you to just be

able to do a tarot spread and choose to negate any badphysical stuff that's happened to your cabal, don't you?"

"Oh. I hadn't thought of it that way.""So what level of the Path of Manifest Nature does

Joshua start with?""Just Level One, for now. I think it's something he

picked up recently.""How did he learn it?"

"Well, since the effects are so small at Level One andcould possibly go unnoticed, I think he sort of just picked itup. I think he doesn't even really realize what it is he's doing,in fact. He just does these tarot spreads for people he likes orgot pissed at to see if they're likely to get what's coming tothem, and wonder of wonders, they do. Maybe he thinks thatjust focusing his anger or gratitude could have some effect,but I'm not sure he realizes what he's doing beyond that."

"That's okay for Level One, but I'd say that, in order toprogress any further, he'll have to get a real teacher. Or he'llhave to do some serious research, at least. But we can worryabout that when he starts to realize what it is he's doing. Okay?"

"Okay. That sounds reasonable."

"Well, that's it for now, I guess." Andrew ripped thepages of notes out of the notebook, folded them and put them

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on top of a pile of books. "I'll see you on Sunday for the game,I'll write up the Path as I see it and e-mail it on to you. If Ithink of anything else, I'll let you know."

"Okay." Steven, looking mildly crestfallen, grabbed hiscoat and headed out onto the porch,

Andrew didn't even notice as he scribbled more notes.Joshua only had the first level, after all. He didn't haveenough experience with the Path yet to have noticed whatAndrew had planned for it. It was way too black-and-whiteto just say that someone was "good" or "bad" and give him anice or nasty effect to go with. It would be much moreinteresting if the effect was tied in with what the person waslike, on a more complex level. Yeah, that was the ticket. Itwould requite a little judgment on the fly; he couldn't justwrite up in advance what effects would be appropriate forwhat sorts of people. But it would be worth the time andeffort. Just wait till Steven figured it out; the revelationwould be fantastic!

It would also restore a little of the spiffiness that Andrewhad taken out of the Path by giving the cabal a chance to geta little information about someone based on what happenedaftet the ritual was performed. But it would do it withoutmaking the Path arbitrarily powerful and without giving thecabal any totally clear answers, Andrew had always been afan of confusion,

Restricting New PathsThe lesson to take away from this example is the

following: The creation of a new Path is a cooperativeventure between player and Storyteller. The Storytellershould take into account what a player is trying to achieve,and it helps to ask about the background behind the choicesthe player has made. In this way, even if you feel it necessaryto make changes due to power level issues, you may be ableto work some of the perks back into the Path in less destruc-tive ways.

In some cases, you may be better off telling your playersand working the further details out with them, especially ifthey're feeling unhappy because you've had to curtail thescope of the Path in other ways. In other cases, you maydecide to save the details as a surprise.

You should try to keep the wishes of the players in mind —after all, they're here to have fun. This shouldn't keep you fromoverriding things when necessary, however. You need to keepthe balance of the game in mind. You need to make sure that onecharacter doesn't become too powerful just because he createdhis own Path. After all—all of your players are here to have fun,not just one of them, and you don't want to give one his toy tothe detriment of everyone else. Ask as many questions as youcan: How does the Path work; under what circumstances willthe character use it? What rituals does the character perform; arethere any fast effects; how has the character used the Path in thepast? Who or where did he learned the Path from; how muchdoes that person know; what has that person done with the Pathin the past?

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If you're concerned about the viability of a Path, youmight approach a solution on any of several levels. One,what does the character do to activate the ability? If a Pathseems too powerful, this is one place you might restrict it.Perhaps rituals take hours to perform or must be performedin special places that can be hard to gain access to. Or maybethey require unusual and hard-to-obtain items — the bloodof a vampite, for example, should be a rare, precious anddangerous thing. Perhaps they depend upon an uncertainability — for example, the ritual depends upon absolutemeditation and concentration and, thus, upon an additionalMeditation roll, which has a possibility of failing or botch-ing. Also, the character might need to learn separate ritualsfor multiple effects from the same level of the Path, thusslowing down the acquisition of power.

Two, what are the effects of the Path at each level? Youmight shift effects up the scale if the Path is too powerful at lowlevels. It helps to categorize and put qualifiers on the levels. Forexample, in the Path of Manifest Nature, the qualifier on LevelThree is "things that require prescription medicine." So any-thing below Level Three really shouldn't be severe enough torequire prescription medicine (they might be things you wouldchoose to use prescription medicine for — it just isn't particu-larly necessary). At Level Four, the qualifier is "things that affectAttributes." That doesn't limit Level Fout to things that affectAttributes, but it does specify that anything below Level Fourwill not affect an Attribute.

The Level Five qualifier is "things that require surgery."Again, qualifiers do not need to be used to artificially restrictthe number of things you can do at a level. You might causean effect at Level Five that doesn't have anything to do withsurgery. However, it does mean that your characters won't bedoing anything like that at lower levels. The qualifier forLevel Six is "terminal conditions." This is an easy way tokeep anyone from trying to slip a cure for leukemia in atLevel Four.

You don't need to use these qualifiers, and you mighteasily decide that they're too permissive or too restrictive foryour game. But they're a good example of how you mightrestrict the power of a Path without necessarily having tothink of everything a Path is capable of ahead of time. If youthink in categories, you shouldn't have to think of everyindividual case. This doesn't mean you shouldn't ask all thequestions, though — nothing heads off problems ahead oftime like a good grilling.

Three, how does the character learn the various levelsof the Path? You might restrict his source. Perhaps hismentor isn't as powerful as the character thought. Or hismentor only knows rituals for very specific effects at eachlevel, and it will require significant research to learn more.If the player insists on finding ways to abuse the Path duringgame play and refuses to stop when you ask him to, you mighttake away his mentor or his source of research material or atleast curtail it (perhaps a fire destroys several key books).

Four, how narrow is the scope of the Path? If it's toobroad, you might narrow it. The Path of Manifest Nature isa relatively nartow one. If someone suggests the Path ofDoing Things to People's Bodies (or something like that),you might want to suggest breaking it down into the Path ofHealing, the Path of Shapechanging and the Path of Sick-ness and Injury.

Five, is the Path inherently too powerful? No one, butno one, should be allowed to create the Path of NuclearWeaponry unless you intend to blow up the cabal in the firstfive minutes of gameplay and start over. Yes, it's a properlynarrow Path, but that just doesn't help in this case. Andthere simply isn't a good way to muck with the individuallevels to bring the powers down to size. The Path of Adhe-sives, on the other hand, with glue sticks at the bottom andepoxy at the top, would probably be fine, if a little ridiculous.

Six, will the Path break the mood of your game? Some-thing like the Path of Adhesives from the previous paragraphis likely to cause gales of laughter whenever it gets used,which might well break the tension of any creepy andfrightening plot you have going.

Seven, is the Path necessary? The Path of Adhesives isnot only silly but could be easily taken care of within thescope of the Path of Alchemy. You'd probably be better offgiving the character the Path of Alchemy and saying that histutoring was a little narrow than allowing him to create hisown Path.

But the point is that there are as many ways to muckwith a Path as there are to muck with sorcery and psychicpowers in general. Put a little thought into the mood, feeland power level your game should have, and let issues suchas Path cteation and game balance flow from that. Hope-fully, the issues, suggestions and questions above wil l giveyou a place to start from — but they're far from the be-all andend-all of sorcery. Remember: it's your game, and anythingcan happen — if you allow it.

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